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£MILE ZOLA

Photo by Cautin & Berger

Emile Zola in his last days

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EMILE ZOLA

NOVELIST AND REFORMER

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE 6f WORK
BY ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY
ILLUSTRATED BY PORTRAITS, VIEWS,
6? FAC-SIMILES

JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD
LONDON &> NEW YORK • MDCCCCIV

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S

TO HIS MEMORY

" If, upon your side, you lave the testimony
of your conscience ', and, against you, that of
the multitude, take comfort, rest assured
that time will do justice." — DIDEROT

PEEFACE

THIS book is an attempt to chronicle the chief incidents
in the life of the late fimile Zola, and to set out the various
aims he had in view at different periods of a career which
was one of the most strenuous the modern world has known.
Virtually all his work is enumerated in the following pages,
which, though some are given to argument and criticism,
will be found crowded with facts. The result may not be
very artistic, but it has been partially my object to show
what a tremendous worker Zola was, how incessantly, how
stubbornly, he practised the gospel which he preached. An
attempt has been made also to show the growth of humani-
tarian and reforming passions in his heart and mind, passions
which became so powerful at last that the " novelist " in Zola
seemed as nothing. Yet I do not think I can be charged with
having neglected the literary side of his career. It is that
which bulks most largely in the present volume, and that I
think is as it should be ; for while Zola was certainly, and
in some respects essentially, a Eeformer, the pen was the
weapon with which he strove to effect his purposes.

Designed more particularly for British and American
readers, the book contains some passages which I should
have abbreviated — omitted perhaps — if I had been address-
ing a French audience. And some subjects, which, in that
case, I might have treated more fully, have here been dealt
with briefly. For instance, though I have enumerated all the

yiii PREFACE

plays that Zola wrote, and most of those founded by others
on his works, I have not entered into any real discussion of
his views respecting the stage, or of his indirect influence
on it in France. I have thought it sufficient to indicate that
such influence was exercised. A full examination of Zola's
relations with the stage would have materially increased
the length of a work which is long already, and which I
have been anxious to keep within the scope of one volume
— a 'desire which has made my task more difficult than it
would have been had I used my materials in all their fulness.
But I am distinctly of opinion that biographies in several
volumes have nowadays little chance of surviving, even for
a moderate number of years.

With respect to Zola's share in the Dreyfus case everybody
will recognise, I think, how difficult it is to narrate the
doings of any one individual in such an intricate mtUe without
constant reference to the other combatants and explanation
of the many points at issue. Nevertheless, though I fully
recognise that the deliverance of Captain Dreyfus was not
effected by Zola only, that many other able and whole-hearted
men co-operated in that great achievement,! have endeavoured
to disentangle Zola's share in the battle from that of the
others, saying of them only what has seemed to me strictly
necessary to explain his actions. I mention this in order
that none may think me unjust towards Zola's fellow-fighters.
And though in some introductory pages I have endeavoured
to indicate the primary causes of the Affair, such as I think
them to have been, in the hope that the reader may be better
able to understand the fury of the fray, I have not plunged
into a discussion of the Affair itself. Besides, M. Dreyfus's
case is now once more before the Cour de Cassation, and
reserve on a variety of matters has therefore become advis-
able. Further, for some years already, a far abler pen than
mine, wielded by one of far greater authority, M. Joseph
Eeinach, has been retracing the many episodes of the Affair,

PREFACE ix

and one may take it, I think, that " LJ Histoire de 1* Affaire
Dreyfus " will not end without casting light even on matters
which may still seem obscure.

In one of my chapters I mention an episode in Zola's
private life, which is already known to so many people that
it would have been ridiculous on my part to have attempted
to conceal it, even if it had been right to do so, I will not
enlarge on the subject here, for it is discussed in its proper
place; I will merely reiterate my conviction that if a
biographer may well be kind to the virtues and a little blind
to the errors of a man he has loved it is nevertheless his
duty to his readers to omit nothing that may be essential
for a right understanding of the man's life.

Further, in another section of the book, I have recounted
the incidents of the prosecution instituted against my father
with respect to certain translations of Zola's novels. And
in this connection I have had occasion to say something
about certain fanatics, and also about the attitude of the
majority of the British newspaper press before it realised
that Zola was not so black as it had painted him. Even
after the lapse of long years, such matters and their con-
sequences cannot be recalled by one who suffered by them
without some feeling of resentment. It is true that in my
preface to the English version of Zola's last book I expressed
my acknowledgments to the press generally for the leniency,
patience, and even favour that had been shown to me from
the time I began to re-introduce Zola's works to the British
public. Those acknowledgments I am quite ready to re-
iterate, in despite of the matters with which I deal in a
chapter of the present book, for those matters belong to an
earlier period. But a sense of duty and justice to my father,
to my brothers and other relatives, to myself as well, has
made it impossible for me to overlook the period in question,
and what I regard largely as its aberrations. Besides, in a
book intended for English readers, it is only fit that the

X PEEFACE

attitude of the English, public towards Zola should be dealt
with.

Most of the illustrations accompanying my text are from
photographs, several of them taken specially for this book ;
but I have to express my acknowledgments to the pro-
prietors of the Illustrated London News for their kind per-
mission to reproduce various views of the rooms in which
much of Zola's life was spent*

E. A. V.

MERTON, SURREY
March, 1904=

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I INTRODUCTORY — THE ZOLA FAMILY — BIRTH

OF SMILE ZOLA 1

II EARLY YEARS : 1840-1860 24

III BOHEMIA — DRUDGERY — FIRST BOOKS: 1860-

1866 53

IV IN THE FURNACE OF PARIS: 1866-1868 . . 80
V THE FIRST " ROUGON-MACQUARTS " : 1868-

1872 109

VI THE PATH OF SUCCESS: 1872-1877 . . . . 140

VII THE ADVANCE OF NATURALISM: 1877-1881 . 166

VIII THE BATTLE CONTINUED: 1881-1887 . . . 206

IX THE BRITISH PHARISEES: 1884-1893 . . . 242
X THE LAST " ROUGON-MACQUARTS " — THE
FRENCH ACADEMY — A VISIT TO LONDON:

1888-1893 300

XI A CRITICAL GLANCE : 1893 342

XII THE MAN — His LIFE DRAMA — A NEW

DEPARTURE: 1893-1897 390

XIII THE DREYFUS CASE: 1894-1900 419

XIV LAST YEARS — DEATH: 1901-1902 .... 493
XV CONCLUSION — THE INFLUENCE AND SURVIVAL

OF ZOLA'S WORKS 527

APPENDIX

A. — Declaration of Zola's birth 541

B. — Declaration of Ms death

C. — Note on some English translations of his novels

INDEX 547

ILLUSTKATIONS

I Entile Zola in his Last Days frontispiece

II The Birthplace of Emile Zola To face page 18

III Dam and Reservoir of the Zola Canal ... 40

IV Zola's Home, Impasse Sylvacanne, Aix ... 72

V The Boulevard Zola and the Banks of the

Arc, Aix 110

VI Emile Zola, 1876-1880 144

VII Zola's Home at Mddan 184

VIII Zola in his Study 224

IX Emile Zola, 1888-1890 240

X Aix-in-Provence, the Plassans of his Books . 272

XI Fac- simile Letter from Zola to E. A. Vizetelly 320

XII Denise and Jacques 352

XIII Maitre Labori 384

XIV Zola writing '« Ftomditd " at Walton ... 416
XV Penn, and Summer field, Surrey 432

XVI Penn from the Garden, and Fac-simile Card

from Zola to Vizetelly 448

XVII fimile Zola, September, 1898 464

XVIII Zola's Dining-room 476

XIX Mme. Zola at the Queen's Hotel, Norwood . 488

XX Zola's Bedroom 512

XXI M. Anatole France speaking at Zola's Funeral 522

EMILE ZOLA

NOVELIST AND REFORMER

IIsTTEODUCTOEY
THE ZOLA FAMILY— BIRTH OF $MILE ZOLA

The meaning of " Zola " — Localities of that name — The Zola family of
Brescia and Venice — Giovanni Battista Zola, saint and martyr — The
Abate Giuseppe Zola and his chequered career — The military Zolas of
Venice — Benedetta ELiariaki and her offspring — Francesco, father of
lilmile Zola — His military training — He becomes an engineer and plans
one of the first " railways " in Europe — His service in the French For-
eign Legion and its strange ending — He plans new docks for the port of
Marseilles — His schemes for fortifying Paris and providing Are in
Provence with water — He meets Franchise iSmilie Aubert — His roman-
tic courtship and marriage — Hia home in the Rue St. Joseph, Paris —
Birth of }£mile Zola — Literature in England, America, and France in
1840 — The birth of lilmile Zola followed by that of Alphonse Daudet —
Contrasting characteristics of those writers,

IT has been contended, with, some plausibility, that the
Italian word zola is simply a variant of zolla, which means,
in a restricted sense, a clod or lump of earth, and, in a broader
one, the glebe or soil. This circumstance has suggested to
certain detractors of Bmile Zola and his writings the scornful
remark that he was at least well named, having been, indeed,
of the earthf earthy. Others have retorted, however, that he
may well have taken pride in such association, for, far from
disowning his Mother Earth, he acknowledged and proclaimed
her beneficence, showed himself her worthy son, and a true
and zealous brother to all compounded of her clay. In the
course of the present memoir it will become necessary to

examine the blame and praise so freely showered upon Zola

2 SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEK

by Ms enemies and his admirers ; but this can be done irre-
spective of any such fanciful consideration as the alleged
meaning of his name. All discussion of that meaning may
be left to philologists and those who are superstitiously in-
clined to detect predestination in nomenclature. At the
same time, it may be as well to point out that the name of
Zola is borne by several localities in Northern Italy, For
instance, there are two villages so called in Lombardy, — one
near Palestro in the province of Pavia, and another in
the Valle di sotto, province of Sondrio. In the Emilia,
moreover, towards Bologna, there is the small but ancient
township of Zola-Predosa, which takes its name from two
castellanies united early in the fourteenth century. And as
far south as Tuscany, in the province of Florence, one finds a
village called Zola incorporated in the Comune di Terra del
Sole, and yet another which is named Zola di Modigliana.
If, as is possible, the family to which Emile Zola belonged
derived its patronymic from some specific locality, this may
well have been one of the Lombardian Zolas ; for though all
the published accounts of the great novelist's progenitors
associate them chiefly with Venice, it is certain that they
were long connected with Brescia, Lombardy's fairest city,
and one which passed for a time under Venetian rule.

The first notable Zola of whom some account has been
preserved was a certain Giovanni Battista, born at Brescia
between 1570 and 1580. Educated for the Church, he joined
the Society of Jesus, and, in or about 1600, proceeded to
Groa as a missionary. From India he made his way to
Japan, whither St. Francis Xavier and others, following
Mendez Pinto, had carried the cross half a century earlier,
Eeniarkable success attended the first endeavours of the

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 3

Jesuit missionaries among the Japanese, but their principles
were incompatible with tolerance. Throwing caution to the
winds, they dictated when they should have been content to
teach and persuade, destroyed native shrines, and plotted
with disaffected nobles, in such wise that Christianity, after
recruiting, it is said, some two hundred thousand adherents
in the realm of the Rising Sun, was placed under interdict
by the Emperor. Terrible slaughter ensued, and among
those who perished at the hands of the Shintoists and
Buddhists was the zealous Giovanni Battista Zola. In our
own times, under the pontificate of Pius IX, he was placed,
like the other holy martyrs of Japan, among the saints of
the Roman Catholic Church.

At the confluence of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, another 'Zola, likewise a Churchman, rose to a
position of some eminence. This was the Abate Giuseppe
Zola, born in 1739 at Concesio, near Brescia, in which city
he became successively librarian, professor of morals, and
rector of the university. But he was a man of broad
views, one whose dream was to reform and rejuvenate the
Church — even like Abb£ Pierre Fromentin ^mile Zola's
"Lourdes" and "Rome." In 1771 the theological views
professed by Giuseppe Zola brought him into conflict with
his Bishop and the Jesuits. He was forced to quit the
university; a three-volume work which he had written
on the early Christians prior to Constantino and two vol-
umes of his theological lectures were denounced to the
Congregation of the "Index expurgatorius " ; and — in this
instance also like Abb6 Pierre Froment — he journeyed
to Rome in the hope of justifying himself. In the end —
once more anticipating Abb£ Pierre — he had to make his

4 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

submission. Then, for three years, he remained at Rome,
teaching morals; hut the influence of his enemies, the
Jesuits, was waning, and not long after the promulgation
of G-anganelli's historic hrief suppressing Loyola's Order,
Zola obtained an appointment as rector and professor of
ecclesiastical history at a seminary for Hungarian students,
established at Pavia by the Emperor Joseph II.

He proved a zealous partisan of that monarch's reforms ;
he imagined, too, that the suppression of the Jesuits meant
the dawn of a new era for the Church. Thus he indulged
fearlessly in advanced religious and political views, his per-
suasive eloquence carrying most of the professors of Pavia
with him. The Church then again treated him as a rebel ;
he was accused of infecting his seminary with heresy ; and
not only was he deprived of his rectorship, but the institu-
tion itself was closed. At last came the French Revolution ;
and the victories of the Republican arms in Italy brought
Zola the professorships of history, jurisprudence, and diplo-
macy at the Pavian University. During the brief revival of
Austrian rule (1799-1800) he was once more cast out, to
be reinstated, however, immediately after Marengo. The
last important incident of his life was a journey to Lyons as
one of the Lombardian deputies whom Napoleon summoned
thither when he constituted his Kingdom of Italy. A year
later, 1806, Giuseppe Zola passed away at his native place.
He was a man of cpnsiderable erudition, broad sympathies,
and untiring energy. Besides writing a dozen volumes on
theological and historical subjects, he edited and annotated
numerous books,1 invariably turning to literature for conso-

1 Only one of Giuseppe Zola's works — " Lezioni di Storia delle Leggi e di
Costume def popoH," etc., Milan, 1809 — is in the British Museum Library.
Among the others, in addition to the volumes placed in the '* Index expurga-

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 5

lation amid the vicissitudes of Ms career, which lias been
recounted here at some little length because it is of a sugges-
tive nature when one remembers that the Abate Giuseppe
was a kinsman of the progenitors of Emile Zola.

Those progenitors belonged to a branch of the family
which had established itself at Venice, and which became
noted for its men of the sword, even as the Brescian branch
was noted for its Churchmen. The Zolas of Venice held
military rank under the last Doges, then under the Cisal-
pine Eepublic, and eventually under Napoleon as King of
Italy. Two of them fell in the great conqueror's service,
one then holding the rank of colonel, the other that of
major. A third, who became a colonel of engineers and
inspector of military buildings, married a young girl of the
island of Corfu, which had been subject to Venice since the
close of the fourteenth century. Her name was Benedetta
Kiariaki, and she introduced a Greek element into the Zola
blood. It seems probable that she had several children,
among whom were certainly two sons. The elder, called
Marco, became a civil engineer, and rose to the highest rank
in the State roads-and-bridges service. He had three chil-
dren, two daughters named respectively Benedetta and
Catarina, and a son, Carlo. Benedetta died unmarried, while
Catarina was wedded to Cavaliere Antonio Petrapoli of
Venice ; but their only offspring, a daughter, was snatched
from them in her childhood.

Carlo Zola, meantime, followed the profession of the law,
and, after the foundation of the present Kingdom of Italy

torius," were some elaborate commentaries on the history of the Church (3
vols., 1780-1786), a dissertation on the theological authority of St. Augustine,
a treatise on Death, etc.

6 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEB

(1866), was appointed a judge of the Appeal Court of Brescia,
He died comparatively few years ago. Contemporary with
him there were other Venetian and Brescian Zolas, cousins,
presumably, of various degrees. In family letters of the first
half of the last century, one reads of a Lorenzo, a Giuseppa,
a Marius, and a Dorina Zola, but all these have passed
away ; and at the present time (1903) the only representa-
tive of the family in Italy would seem to be the Signora
Emma Fratta, nSe Zola, a widow lady with four children.

But, besides Marco Zola, Benedetta Kiariaki, the Corfiote,
had a son called Francesco in his earlier years, and Frangois
after he took up his residence in France. As a matter of
fact he bore four Christian names, Francesco Antonio
Giuseppe Maria — which maybe taken as some indication
of the family's gentle status. In the present narrative, in
which it is necessary to speak of him at some little length,
for he became the father of £mile Zola, it may be best to
call him Francois. He was born at Venice on August 8,
1795, and entered the Eoyal Military School of Pavia in
October, 1810. A corporal-cadet in March, 1811, a serjeant
two months later, he obtained his first commission, as a
sub-lieutenant in the Fourth Light Infantry, in April, 1812.
In July of the same year he was transferred to the Royal
Italian Artillery, with the rank of lieutenant. He was then
only seventeen. Until the collapse of the Napoleonic King-
dom of Italy in 1814 he served under the viceroy Prince
Eugene Beauharnais; and his regiment being afterwards
incorporated in the Austro-Italian forces, he remained with
it till 1820.1

* "La YeMt£ en Marche," by $mile Zola, Paris, 1901, p. 259, (Docu-
ments in the Dossier 2Pran9ois Zola at the French War Office. )

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 7

But the exile of Napoleon to St. Helena had brought
Europe a period of peace, and some leisure fell to the lot
even of, military men in active service. In all probability
the " First Light Battery," to which Francois Zola belonged,
was stationed at Padua ; in any case, while still in the army,
the young man perfected his studies at the Paduan Univer-
sity and secured the degree of doctor in mathematics. In
1818 he published a treatise on levelling ground,1 which
was adopted by the authorities at Milan (the capital of the
Austrian dominions in Italy) as a text-book for the engi-
neers of their roads-and-bridges service, and which procured
for the young author, then three and twenty, the title of
Associate of the Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts of
Padua.2

If in 1820 he withdrew from military service, it was, as
shown by a document in his own handwriting, preserved at
the French War Office, because the Austrian Emperor " had
been graciously pleased to order the introduction of the
bastinado into his Italian regiments " ; but although Fran$ois
Zola denounced this as a barbarous proceeding, he does not
appear to have entertained any hatred of the Austrians
generally. From a speech delivered at his funeral, one
gathers that on quitting the army he worked under his
brother Marco, then chief inspector of roads and bridges,
became a properly qualified engineer, and was eventually
sent to Upper Austria on some official surveying business.
While there, he became acquainted with the Bitter von
Gerstner and an engineer named Bergauer, in conjunction

1 "Trattato di Livellazione topografica," by Francesco Zola, Dr. in Math.,
Lieut, Padua, 1818. 8vx>.

2 Funeral oration on F. Zola, by Maltre Labot, Advocate at the Bar of the
French Council of State,

8 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOKMEB

with whom lie constructed the first tramway line laid down
on the continent of Europe.1

It has "been called a railway, and such it undoubtedly
was, though not in the sense usually given to the word
"railway" nowadays; for relays of horses were employed
for traction. The line extended from Linz on the Danube
to Budweis in Bohemia, a distance of seventy-eight miles ;
and though it seems to have been largely devised for the
transport of timber from the Bohemian forests to the great
waterway, there was also a passenger service, which still
existed in our time.2

While constructing this line, Zola, in June, 1823, obtained
personally the imperial authorisation to make another one,
connecting Linz with G-munden and the Salzkammergut —
the so-called "Austrian Switzerland," industrially important
for its extensive salt-works. But he became disappointed
with the financial results of the Budweis line, and, accord-
ingly, in September, 1830, he sold the Gmunden concession.
It seems likely that he had then already quitted Austria.
There are indications that he may have visited England
with Eitter von Gerstner, and have sojourned for a time
in Holland; but before the end of 1830 he was certainly in
France, writing to King Louis Philippe respecting a scheme
he had devised for the fortification of Paris. In the spring
of 1831 he was in communication with the French War
Office on this same subject, whilst also soliciting an appoint-
ment in the Foreign Legion, in Algeria, with the rank of

1 Documents printed by the " Neue Freie Presse " of Vienna (No. 12,028,
February 17, 1898) and quoted in " LePere d'imile Zola," by Jacques Dhur,
Paris, 1899.

a Baedeekefs "Southern Germany and Austria," 1871.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 9

captain.1 The fortification scheme was shelved, but the ap-
pointment was granted, excepting in one respect : it was as
a lieutenant, not as a captain, that Fran§ois Zola entered
the Foreign Legion in July, 1831.

His career in that corps proved very brief, and ended
strangely. Many years afterwards an unprincipled journal-
ist, anxious to discredit 32mile Zola's championship of Cap-
tain Dreyfus, raked up the episode in order to denounce
the novelist as the son of a thief. But it is certain that
some documents cited at the time were entirely forged, that
others were falsified in part, and that others, again, were
suppressed. This can occasion no surprise when it is re-
membered that one of the dossiers concerning Francois Zola,
preserved at the French War Office, passed for a time into
the possession of the notorious forger, Colonel Henry;2 and
that an unscrupulous Minister, General Billot, by asserting
authoritatively that certain papers did not exist,3 contrived
to delay their discovery. Those matters will require notice
hereafter; at this stage one need only mention that the
attack on Frangois Zola's memory was answered first in a
work called " Le Pfere d'Emile Zola " by a Socialist journal-
ist, writing under the name of «' Jacques Dhur," and secondly
by fimile Zola himself in a series of newspaper articles,
which he reprinted in a volume entitled "La V4rit£ en
Marche."

After studying those books and the documents they
quote, nobody of impartial mind can entertain the graver
charges preferred against the novelist's father. In his time

, * " La YeritS en Marche/' pp. 259, 280-282.

2 Probably in March, 1898. " La V6rit6 en Marche," pp. 251-253.
Hd., pp. 277-279.

8 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOEMER

with whom he constructed the first tramway line laid down
on the continent of Europe.1

• It has been called a railway, and such it undoubtedly
was, though not in the sense usually given to the word
"railway" nowadays; for relays of horses were employed
for traction. The line extended from linz on the Danube
to Budweis in Bohemia, a distance of seventy-eight miles ;
and though it seems to have been largely devised for the
transport of timber from the Bohemian forests to the great
waterway, there was also a passenger service, which still
existed in our time.2

While constructing this line, Zola, in June, 1823, obtained
personally the imperial authorisation to make another one,
connecting Linz with Gmunden and the Salzkammergut —
the so-called " Austrian Switzerland," industrially important
for its extensive salt-works. But he became disappointed
with the financial results of the Budweis line, and, accord-
ingly, in September, 1830, he sold the Gmunden concession.
It seems likely that he had then already quitted Austria,
There are indications that he may have visited England
with Bitter von Gerstner, and have sojourned for a time
in Holland ; but before the end of 1830 he was certainly in
France, writing to King Louis Philippe respecting a scheme
he had devised for the fortification of Paris. In the spring
of 1831 he was in communication with the French "War
Office on this same subject, whilst also soliciting an appoint-
ment in the Foreign Legion, in Algeria, with the rank of

1 Documents printed by the " Neue Freie Presse " of Vienna (No, 12,028,
February 17, 1898) and quoted in " LePere d'^mile Zola," by Jacques Dhur,
Paris, 1899.

2 Baedecker*s "Southern Germany and Austria," 1871*

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER 9

His career in that corps proved very brief, and ended
strangely. Many years afterwards an unprincipled journal-
ist, anxious to discredit ISmile Zola's championship of Gap-
tain Dreyfus, raked up the episode in order to denounce
the novelist as the son of a thief. But it is certain that
some documents cited at the time were entirely forged, that
others were falsified in part, and that others, again, were
suppressed. This can occasion no surprise when it is re-
membered that one of the dossiers concerning Frangois Zola,
preserved at the French War Office, passed for a time into
the possession of the notorious forger, Colonel Henry;2 and
that an unscrupulous Minister, General Billot, by asserting
authoritatively that certain papers did not exist,3 contrived
to delay their discovery. Those matters will require notice
hereafter; at this stage one need only mention that the
attack on Frangois Zola's memory was answered first in a
work called "Le P&re d'fimile Zola" by a Socialist journal-
ist, writing under the name of *' Jacques Dhur," and secondly
by Emile Zola himself in a series of newspaper articles,
which he reprinted in a volume entitled "La V4rit£ en
Marche."

After studying those books and the documents they
quote, nobody of impartial mind can entertain the graver
charges preferred against the novelist's father. In his time

, * " La Yerit& en Marche," PP- 259, 280-282.

2 Probably in March, 1898. "La V&itf en Marche," pp. 251-253.
8 Ibid., pp. 277-279.

10 MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE

(1831-1832) great confusion prevailed in the Algerian army
of occupation. Commanders and officers were constantly
being changed, and Zola himself, after serving at first as a
company officer, was temporarily entrusted with wardrobe
matters, in his management of which some irregularities ap-
pear to have arisen, in consequence, perhaps, of the aforesaid
confusion, or of Zola's inexperience of such duties, or even
neglect of them. In this connection, it is asserted that
he became involved in an intrigue with a married woman,
the wife of an ex-non-commissioned officer, of German origin,
named Fischer. It is alleged that in May, 1832, when this
woman and her husband were on the point of sailing for
France, Zola disappeared from his quarters ; and that, some
garments belonging to him having been found on the sea-
shore near Algiers, it was at first thought he had committed
suicide, or had been drowned while bathing. Somebody sug-
gested, however, that he might be with the Fischers, and
accordingly the vessel on which they had taken passage was
searched, Zola was not there, but the Fischers acknow-
ledged that a sum of fifteen hundred francs, out of four thou-
sand found in their possession, belonged to him. This
seemed a matter for investigation, particularly as a deficit
in the wardrobe accounts had now been discovered. The
Fischers, therefore, were arrested and brought on shore.

But Zola, from some unknown retreat, — unknown, that
is, at the present time, — wrote to the Commander-in-Chief,
General the Duke of Eovigo, offering to come forward, make
up his accounts, and pay whatever deficit might be found.
According to the Duke of Eovigo, as Zola was only sus-
pected of bad management, and no judicial complaint had
been laid against him, this offer was accepted. No court-

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 11

martial was held, though the lieutenant, on presenting
himself, was placed under arrest until his accounts had
been adjusted. He then paid over what was due, and the
conseil d' administration of the Foreign Legion having given
him a discharge in full, the Duke of Rovigo ordered his
release.

Meantime, Zola had tendered the resignation of his com-
mission, and Marshal Soult, the Minister of War, who had
been informed of the whole affair, objected that he ought
not to have been set at liberty while this was still under
consideration. Rovigo then wrote to the Minister justifying
his own action ; l and, in the result, after reference to the
King in person, Zola's resignation was accepted.

Such are those facts of the case which seem to be well
authenticated. It is known that several documents have
disappeared from one of the Zola dossiers at the French
Ministry of War, and that at least one letter attributed to
Colonel Combe, who commanded the Foreign Legion in
Zola's time, was forged; while another, couched in the
strangest and wildest language, was doctored if not entirely
invented. In such circumstances it is impossible to ascer-
tain the whole truth concerning the affair ; but the lenient
view taken of it by the Duke of Rovigo, the life of high rec-
titude and able work which Zola led in after as in earlier
years, the favour subsequently shown him by King Louis
Philippe, to whom his case had been submitted, his later
correspondence with Marshal Soult, to whom every partic-
ular was also known, — all tend to show that whatever may
have been the exact nature of his delinquency, it was far
less grave than his son's enemies wished one to imagine,
l "La Y<§rit6 en Marohe," pp. 264-266. .

14 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

gineering "enterprises, he constantly showed himself to be in
advance of his age, — such as it was in France, — full of
faith in science, gifted with remarkable foresight as to
possible developments, and possessed of an energy which no
rebuff could overcome. In 1831 his schemes for the fortifi-
cation of Paris had been shelved ; but directly that question
was publicly revived by the French government (1839-
1840), Francois Zola, undismayed by the failure of his long
efforts at Marseilles, again did battle for his ideas. It is a
curious circumstance, established by his writings and supply-
ing strong proof of his foresight, that he was opposed to the
construction of a rampart round the city, and advocated a
system of detached forts. Long years afterwards, the Franco-
German War of 1870 demonstrated the general accuracy of
his views ; the rampart, raised contrary to his advice, then
proved absolutely useless, and is now being removed, in part
at all events ; while the advanced forts of the time, though
their system was imperfect, alone rendered efficient service
against the besiegers. But it is remarkable to find that of
recent years, in adding to the forts which did duty during
the German investment, in erecting others in advance of
them so as to enclose a larger stretch of country, whence
the city might derive supplies of food in time of siege, the
French military authorities have followed in all noteworthy
respects the line traced by Frangois Zola, first in 1831, and
secondly in 1840!

Thus time brings round its revenges. Francois Zola was
a gifted and able man, and well might a son be proud of
having such a father. How proud fimile Zola was to have
sprung from one who showed such practical and far-seeing
genius, how he vindicated his memory, and smote his

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 15

traducers, all may read in the little volume entitled " Truth
on the March."

But before Francois Zola made fresh efforts in the matter
of fortifying Paris, he had quitted Marseilles for Aix, the
old capital of Provence, having observed in the course of
some visits how greatly that ancient city and some of the
surrounding country suffered from a lack of water. The
idea of damming certain gorges, forming huge reservoirs
into which the mountain torrents might fall, and bring-
ing the water to Aix by a canal, occurred to him, and
he had already studied the matter for some months, when,
in September, 1838, the chief local journal, "Le Memorial
d'Aix," gave publicity to his views. A preliminary agree-
ment with the Municipal Council followed in December,
and from that moment, what with this canal scheme, the
Marseilles project, and ,the plans for fortifying Paris, Zola
had his hands full. He was frequently compelled to visit
the capital, and on one such occasion he fell in love and
married.

This occurred early in 1839. Francois Zola, who is de-
scribed as being a genuine Italian in appearance, dark, with
a very expressive face, a delicately curved mouth, a well-
shaped nose, and piercing eyes, was then three and forty,
while his bride was in her twentieth year, simple, gentle,
and very pretty. Their first meeting recalled that of Faust
and Marguerite. He perceived her as she was leaving
church, fell in love with her on the spot, sought her home
and her parents in the Rue de CWry, and wooed her with
all the ardour of his Italian temperament. Her name was
Fran§oise Emilie Aubert. Born in 1819, under the shadow
of the tower of Philip Augustus, in the little town of Dour-

18 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMEB

the newspaper trade of Paris was carried on chiefly in
and about the Bue de la Victoire.

Directly the Zolas were installed in their new abode the
young wife had to make preparations for her expected babe.
In this matter she was assisted by her mother, Madame
Aubert, a bright and sturdy woman, who had sprung from
that peasantry which is the backbone of France. And soon
afterwards, at eleven o'clock on the night of Wednesday,
April 2, on a camp-bedstead, placed near the bedroom win-
dow already mentioned, there was born a child, who to the
great delight of parents and grandparents was found to be a
boy. Two days later the birth was registered at the Muni-
cipal Offices of the district, and the babe then received the
names of Emile Edouard Charles Antoine.1

Born on the spot where Moli&re and La Fontaine had
slumbered, that boy was destined like them to rise to literary
celebrity. The laugh which Moli&re cast over human vile-
ness, the light archness of La Fontaine, were never his. It
was with deep earnestness that he stripped every Tartuffe
of his last shred of clothing, that he bared every social sore
to the gaze of a shrinking world. And the moral of his
disclosures was not pointed in any vein of half-indulgent
sarcasm, but writ large, in letters of fire, which burnt and
branded. Moreover, a supreme destiny was reserved for
him : his voice became at one moment that of the conscience
of mankind2

At the time of his birth the Victorian age was dawning
in England. The Queen had lately married. Most of
Tennyson's work was still undone, and so was Buskin's.

1 See post, Appendix A. Declaration of the birth of $mile Zola,
3 Anatole France, October 5, 1902.

Photo by A. Waser

The Birthplace of Emile Zola
10, Rue St. Joseph, Paris

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 19

Bailey had just leapt into renown with " Festus." Brown-
ing, in 1840, produced his "Sordello," and his wife her
" Drama of Exile " ; while Hood meandered " Up the Bhine,"
and Tupper basked in the continued popularity of his book
of platitudes, already two years old. Meantime Faraday had
published the first edition of his " Experimental Eesearches
in Electricity " ; Darwin, advancing slowly and methodically
towards great pronouncements, was preparing the " Zoology
of the Voyage of the Beagle " ; John Stuart Mill was medi-
tating on his " System of Logic." And while Southey com-
pleted his naval History, while Agnes Strickland began to
issue her " Lives of the Queens," and Harriet Martineau her
History of thirty years, Macaulay wrote his Essays, and
Carlyle discoursed on "Heroes and Hero-worship."

For the Ion ton of London, the Countess of Blessing-
ton's now forgotten " Belle of the Season " was one of the
novels of the day; but in that same year, 1840, Dickens
published his " Old Curiosity Shop," Thackeray his " Cather-
ine " and his "Paris Sketch Book," Ainsworth Ms " Tower/'
James his " Man at Arms," Marryat his " Poor Jack," Hook
his " Cousin Geoffrey," and Frances Trollope her "Widow
Married," with which she hoped to repeat the success of her
clever " Widow Barnaby." Bulwer, for his part, was writing
" Night and Morning," and Lever was recording the exploits
of "Charles O'Malley," while Disraeli, who had produced
his tragedy " Alarcos " the previous year, turned for a time
from literature. The Brontes and Kingsley had given
nothing as yet; the Eossettis were children, like George
Meredith, then twelve years old ; and among those who in
1840 first saw the light were John Addington Symonds and
Thomas Hardy.

20 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

Meantime, across the Atlantic, Van Buren being Presi-
dent of the United States, Emerson was writing his " Method
of Nature " ; Longfellow his " Voices of the Night " ; Lowell,
" A Year's Life " ; Irving on his side contributing " Wolf ert's
Boost" to the "Knickerbocker," Willis publishing his " Cor-
sair," and Poe his " Tales of the Grotesque."

To English and American readers those imperfect sum-
maries may give some idea of the " literary movement " in
Great Britain and the United States at the time when Emile
Zola was born. But what of his own country, Trance?
During nearly ten years Louis Philippe had been reigning
there ; and a few months later the ashes of Napoleon were
to be brought back from St. Helena ; for the Orl&tns mon-
archy, which had now reached its zenith, imagined itself to
be quite secure. Indeed, when in August, that same year,
the great conqueror's nephew descended on Boulogne, with
a tame eagle upon his arm and a proclamation in his pocket,
he covered himself with ridicule instead of the glory he
had anticipated. And, again, though it was in 1840 that
Louis Blanc first issued his " Organisation du Travail," be-
fore beginning his " Histoire de Dix Ans," Eepublican and
Socialist propaganda was not as yet sufficiently advanced
to bear much fruit.

Literature flourished, and cast upon the reign the glory
which it failed to glean on other fields, for little came from
Algerian exploits, however dashing, and none at all was
harvested by an adventurous diplomacy. But a generation
of remarkable writers had arisen, some among them great,
many of them eminent in their respective spheres. In 1840,
no doubt, the shadows were gathering around Chateaubriand,
Casimir Delavigne could see his transient popularity declin-

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 21

ing, Alfred de Vigny's best work was already done; but
Hugo, " Victor in drama, victor in romance/' pursued with
undimmed lustre his triumphal course. Moreover, Lamar-
tine had just issued his " Recueillements po^tiques," and
Musset was publishing his tales in prose. Meantime,
Michelet and the Thierrys gave life to History ; while Ste.
Beuve — when not wandering after petticoats, and meditat-
ing on that " Livre d' Amour " which he was to produce three
years later, and afterwards to destroy, as far as possible, with
his own hands — was penning those Monday criticisms
which may still be read with so much profit as well as
pleasure.

Gautier was in Spain, having left the critical arm-chair
of "La Presse" to the gifted and ill-fated Gerard de Nerval;
but Janin discoursed in the " D£bats " with his usual flip-
pancy, at one moment suggesting (in ignorance that any
" Mrs. Grundy " would ever assert herself) that Paul de
Kock and his indecorum were best suited to the English
taste, whereas Monsieur de Balzac might well seek popular-
ity in Russia. Thither, as it happened, the great delineator
of " La Oom^die Humaine " repaired for the first time towards
the close of that year, which found him in a despondent
mood. In March, "Vautrin" had been produced and
promptly laid under interdict, because Fr^ddrick Lemaltre,
who impersonated the great rascal, had "made himself a
head " like the King's. And sixteen volumes and twenty
acts, written in a twelvemonth, Balzac complained, had
not brought him freedom from pecuniary worries, even
though the proceeds amounted to one hundred and fifty
thousand francs.

If Balzac took his pecuniary cares to heart, there was

22 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOBMER

little if any fretting on the part of tliat splendid prodigal
the great Dumas, who now issued his " Chevalier d'Harmen-
tal," an inferior work, no doubt, yet one which showed traces
of the lion's paw. Sue's contribution to the literature of
1840, " La Vigie de Koat-Ven," is now almost forgotten ; so
is Legouv^s " Edith de Falsen," though it ran through several
editions. Doubtless one of the most popular novels of the
day was still Charles de Bernard's best work, "G-erfaut,"
the fifth edition of which now came from the j>ress. George
Sand, for her part, was penning a minor work, " Pauline ";
Souli^ was building his " Chateau des Pyr6n3es " ; and M&i-
mde, diffident and painstaking, was copying and modify-
ing, sixteen times in succession, his still familiar tale of
" Colomba." Stendhal had given his " Chartreuse de Parme "
to the world in the previous year. Flaubert was but a
young man of nineteen, travelling in southern France and
plunging, at Marseilles, into a transient love affair, which
was to suggest an episode of " Madame Bovary." Finally,
in that same year, 1840, — within six weeks after the birth
of Emile Zola, — Alphonse Daudet, who was destined to
become his friend, and, in a sense, his rival for fame, came
into the world at Mmes in Provence.

In these two, Zola and Daudet, was repeated a phenome-
non often observed in the history of French literature : the
advent of a superior man of strong masculinity, attended or
soon followed by that of another, distinguished by femininity
of mini Thus Corneille and Racine, Voltaire and Rous-
seau, Hugo and Lamartine, Very similar was the decouple-
ment of Zola and Daudet, who, the one appealing to the
reason, the other to the heart, stood in the domain of fiction,
at least at one period of their careers, head and shoulders

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEB 23

above every contemporary. Daudet waged his battle with
a quick and slender rapier, Zola brandished a heavy mace —
akin to those redoubtable weapons with which the warriors
of mediaeval days beat down the helms of their antagonists.
Some, too, have likened Daudet to an Arab horse, all eager-
ness and nerves ; while Zola has been called a cactus of
Provence that had sprouted between the paving-stones of
Paris. The great city was his birthplace, and he was proud
of it ; yet Provence certainly had many claims on him, for
there he was conceived, and there, as the following pages
will show, he spent the greater part of his childhood under
circumstances which exercised no little influence on his dis-
position, life, and work.

EAELY YEAES

1840-1860

Francois Zola in Paris — A rebuff and a success — Progress of Ms canal scheme
— He is struck down by the " mistral " and dies — His obsequies and his
grave — Difficulties of his widow and son — Lawsuits — Aix, a city of
Philistines or of enlightenment ? — $mile Zola, a spoilt child — His first
schooling and first chums — He plays the truant — Declining family cir-
cumstances — Zola is sent to the Aix College — His many prizes, and his
first literary attempts — The college and its masters — Zola, Bailie, and
Cezanne ; their pranks and their rambles — The country round Ai* —
.Zola's lines on Provence — He is influenced by Hugo and Musset — Ideal
love : Gratienne and Ninon — Increasing family penury — Madame Zola
seeks help in Paris — She is joined there by her son — Zola at the Lyce"e
St. Louis — He is ''ploughed" for a degree in Paris — His vacations in
Provence — Early poetry — He is *' ploughed " at Marseilles — His
studies stopped — A gloomy outlook,

THE infancy of fertile Zola was spent in Paris, his father's
enterprises compelling tlie family to remain there till 1843.
Throughout 1840 the engineer was preparing plans of his
fortification scheme, issuing pamphlets, corresponding with
Thiers, and interviewing General Despans-Cubi&res, Minister
of War. He renewed his efforts when Thiers fell from power
and was succeeded by Marshal Soult ; but he was unable to
overcome the stolid indifference of General Dode, the war-
office director of fortifications, who, without even examining
his plans, reported against them on the ground that the
government and the defence committee had made up their
minds four years previously with respect to what system
should be adopted. As Soult accepted this view of the
matter, Zola's efforts again came to nothing. His only con-
solation was that, early in 1841, when the Paris fortification

tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 25

bill was finally discussed by the legislature, his ideas found
supporters in General Schneider and M. Dufaure, a subse-
quent prime minister of France.1 A better result attended
Zola's invention of an appliance for removing the masses of
earth, which, he foresaw, would be thrown up in digging the
moat of the Paris rampart. He patented this invention in
June, 1841, and after his appliance had been constructed at
some works in the Eue de Miromesnil in 1842, it was em-
ployed successfully in the excavations at Clignancourt.2

A few months later the indomitable engineer again turned
to his scheme for providing Aix with water. Removing
thither with his wife and child, he signed, in April, 1843, a
new agreement with the municipality, followed in June by
another with the mayor of Le Tholonet; for a large dam
was to be constructed near that village, at the entrance of
the Internet gorges. But although Zola's earlier sugges-
tions had now prompted the neighbouring city of Marseilles
to cut a canal from Pertuis on the Durance, — an enterprise
carried out by a distinguished engineer named Montrichet
between 1839 and 1849, — some of the good people of Aix
and its vicinity remained uninfluenced by the example, and
a long battle ensued.

The waters which Zola had finally decided to bring to Aix
were those of the little rivers Causse and Bayou, and the
interested villages were gradually won over, though, now
and again, territorial magnates like the Marquis de Galliffet,
Prince de Martigues, — father of the well-known general
officer and owner of the chateau of Le Tholonet, — remained

* "Le Pere d'imile Zola/' p, 212 et seq.; "La Y6rit<§ en Marclie," p, 295
et seq.

a Ibid., p. 306.

26 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOKMER

hostile to the scheme. Fortunately Zola, besides having a
good friend in M. Aude, the mayor of Aix, obtained support
in Paris, notably from Thiers and Mignet, whose association
•with the old Provencal city is well known ; and thus, in
May, 1844, he obtained a royal declaration of the public
utility of his project, with leave to expropriate landowners,
purchase land, and capture water on terms which were to be
arranged. The landowners, however, often set extravagant
prices on their property, bitter disputes arose over valua-
tions, and all sorts of authorities, with interests at stake,
raised one and another claim and difficulty ; the Council of
State at last having to re-adjust Zola's agreements with
municipalities and others, in such wise that a final covenant
was only signed in June, 1845. Zola then returned to Paris
with his wife and son, for, apart from all municipal help, a
considerable amount of money had to be raised for the en-
terprise, and it was not until midsummer, 1846, that the
Zola Canal Company was at last constituted.1

Then the engineer went southward once more. One reads
in contemporary newspapers that the great struggle had
affected his health, that he was no longer so strong as
formerly, but it is certain that he felt full of confidence.
His courageous efforts were about to yield fruit : the work
was begun, the first sod was cut, the first blasting operations
were carried out successfully. Zola stood, as it were, on the
threshold of the promised land. And then, all at once,
destiny struck him down. One morning, after three months'
toil, while he was superintending his men, the "mistral" wind,
that scourge of southern France, descended upon the valley
where they were working. The icy blast laid its clutch
1 Soci&d du Canal Zola : deeds drawn by Maltre Baudier, Notary in Paris.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 27

upon Zola, but, although he already felt its chill, he would
not defer a business visit to Marseilles. He repaired thither,
installing himself, as was his habit, at the H6tel de la M£di-
terrande kept by one Moulet, in the Rue de 1'Arbre. That
same night he was attacked by pleurisy, and on the morrow
it became necessary to summon his wife, who had remained
at Aix. All remedies proved unavailing, and within a
week he expired in her arms. Thirty years afterwards that
sudden death, in a second-class hotel, amid unpacked trunks
and the coming and going of heedless travellers, suggested
to Zola's son the account of Charles Grandjean's death given
in " Une Page d' Amour." l

It was on Saturday, March 27, 1847, that Fran§ois Zola
thus passed away. His remains were embalmed, and the
obsequies took place at Aix on the ensuing Tuesday, when
the clergy went in procession to the Place de la Rotonde,
beyond the walls, to receive the body on its arrival. The
pall-bearers were the sub-prefect, the mayor, the government
district engineer, and Maitre Labot, an eminent advocate of
the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, who had
been one of Zola's leading supporters. The capitular clergy,
headed by a Canon-bishop of St. Denis, officiated at the rites
in the cathedral ; and, as chief mourner, immediately behind
the hearse, when escorted by the civil and military authori-
ties it took the road to the cemetery, between crowds of
spectators, there walked a pale-faced little boy, barely seven
years of age, who moved as in a dream. In after years he
retained little recollection of his father. He pictured him
best, he was wont to say, by the aid of all that his mother

1 Paul Alexis* "Simile Zola: Fotes d'un Ami/' 2d edition, Paris,
1882, p. 130. £. Zola's "Una Page d'Amour," Paris, 1878, pp. 20, 21.

28 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMER

tad related of Ms affectionate tenderness, his unflagging
energy, Ms Mgh and noble views. Thus how great was the
son's amazement, indignation, and sorrow when, long years
afterwards, unscrupulous enemies tried to make the world
believe that his father had been a thief.

On that matter the reader will form Ms own opinion, and
it is largely to enable him to do so that the cMef facts of
Franqois Zola's career of honourable and untiring industry
have been recapitulated in these pages. But another pur-
pose also has been served. As the narrative of fimile Zola's
life proceeds, it will be observed how truly he was his father's
son, evincing in manhood the same energy, industry, and
perseverance, the same passion to strive against obstacles,
and, by striving, overcome them. In his case, the prompting
of inherited nature is the more manifest as he was of such
tender years when his father died, and thus escaped the
influence of companionship and example, wMch so often
increase the resemblance of father and son. Ah, that poor
contemned doctrine of heredity, as old as the world itself,
how could Emile Zola fail to believe in it when he himself
was a striking illustration of its workings ?

Francois Zola's widow placed a modest slab upon her
husband's grave in the cemetery of Aix, in which she herself
was to be laid three and thirty years later. A cedar shades
the tomb from the flaring sky poised over that glowing field
of death, whence the view spreads to many a hill and moun-
tain, clad in blue and purple. And on the slab, which is
protected by iron chains dangling from granite billets, one
reads : "Francois Zola, 1795-1847. Frangoise Emilie Zola,
nle Aubert, 1819-1880." Aix, however, does not need the
presence of that tomb to remind it of one of its most

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 29

notable benefactors. Although Frangois Zola died when his
work was only in its first stage, although a little later his
original scheme was foolishly cut down, in such wise as to
necessitate other subsequent costly undertakings, and al-
though thirty-one years elapsed before the water he had
coveted at last entered Aix, the enterprise he planned has
always been known popularly as the Zola Canal. Further,
after its completion in 1868, the local municipality then in
office, to efface in a measure the inconsiderate treatment of
his widow and his son by previous municipalities, bestowed
the name of Boulevard Fran§ois Zola on a thoroughfare till
then called the Boulevard du Chemin-neuf.1

The expression "inconsiderate treatment " is certainly not
too severe a one to be applied to the action of some of the
authorities of Aix in their dealings with Zola's widow, who,
in her own name and her son's, inherited her husband's in-
terest in the canal scheme. But she had to contend also
with others associated with the work. It was virtually a
repetition, or rather a variation, of the familiar story of the
confiding inventor and the greedy capitalist. In this in-
stance the inventor was dead, and only his heirs remained.
He had fully disclosed his scheme, prepared his plans, and
others were eager to profit by them. Thus his widow and
his little boy were gradually regarded as incumbrances,
nuisances. Why not set them aside ? Why not rob them ?
Are not the widow and the orphan robbed every day ? Be-
sides, it is often easy to bamboozle a young and inexperienced
woman in matters of law. Already at this time Madame
Zola's parents had come to live with her at Aix ; but her
father was aged, and deficient, it would seem, in business ca-
* "La V&it6 en Marche," p. 241.

30 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

pacity ; while her mother, however bright, active, and thrifty,
was not the woman to give unimpeachable advice on intricate
legal questions. As for little El mile, now seven years old,
he did not even know his letters ; he spent happy, careless
days in the sunshine, blissfully ignorant that trouble was
assailing the home, and would some day destroy it. Yet
it was he who, long years afterwards, avenged his father and
his mother, in the only manner possibly in which they
could be avenged. Perhaps it did not affect the despoilers
personally ; many of them, indeed, must have been dead at
the time, and those who survived may have only sneered,
for the gold was theirs. None the less the pictures of Aix
and its society, traced in four or five volumes of the Rougon-
Macquart novels, were instinct with retribution. Aix still
raises ineffectual protests whenever it hears that name of
Plassans which the novelist gave it, and which, though its
origin was simple enough, — for it was merely a modification
of Hassans, the name of a village near Brignoles, southeast
of Aix, — acquired under Zola's caustic pen an element of
opprobrium.

The displeasure of Aix in this respect has been the more
marked as the city's past is not destitute of grandeur. One
of the earliest stations of the Romans in Gaul, it became the
metropolis of the Second Narbonensis ; but its walls, porti-
coes, thermae, arena, and temples were largely destroyed
when the Saracens sacked it in the eighth century, and few
memorials of its classic era now exist. As the capital of
Provence in the days of " good King Ren6," whose court was
described by Scott in "Anne of Geierstein," Aix regained
some lustre, followed half a century later by a period of
trouble, many of its mediaeval monuments being wrecked

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 31

during the struggle between Francis I and Charles V, who
was crowned King of Aries in the fane of St. Sauveur.
Nevertheless, girdled by picturesque mountains, with its old
town, new town, and faubourg, rich in stately edifices, pleas-
ant promenades, and elegant fountains, Air remains one of
the notable cities of southern France. And if, administra-
tively, as the French say, it is now only a sub-prefecture of
the department of the Bouches-du-Rh6ne, it continues to be
an archbishop's see, and retains its courts of justice and its
faculties of theology, law, and letters. Its university is per-
haps its greatest boast, though it is also proud of its museum
and its splendid library, which is known to scholars all the
world over. Thus Aix claims to be a city of enlightenment,
not a town of Philistines, as it was largely pictured by
Smile Zola; but one must remember that he described
things as they were in his time, and that if a new and more
active generation has arisen nowadays, it was preceded by
others, somnolent and neglectful.

Aix has given several distinguished sons to France : the
elder Vanloo; Vauvenargues, the moralist; Mignet,the his-
torian ; Brueys, the poet, and Brueys, the admiral who fell
at the battle of the Nile ; Michel Adanson and Piton d0
Tournefort, the eminent naturalists ; Frangois Granet, who
translated Newton into French, and Fran§oisMarius G-ranet,
his nephew, who distinguished himself in art, and became
one of the city's benefactors. Again, Portalis, the great
jurisconsult, who prepared the Concordat which still binds
France and the Papal See, was for a time one of the shin-
ing lights of the city ; and Thiers, though born at Mar-
seilles, completed his studies at Aix, took his degrees, and
was called to the b&r there. Curiously enough, the house

32 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

where TMers liad lived in his student days was the first
home of the Zolas at Aix. It stood at the end of a strip of
road, a " no thoroughfare," called picturesquely the Impasse
Sylvacanne. There was a large garden to the house, and in
that garden little Emile disported himself as he listed.

His mother and grandmother spoilt him, as the saying
goes. His father's death filled them with indulgence for his
childish faults. He was a boy to be petted and humoured,
for the greatest of misfortunes had fallen on him. Spending
so much of his time in the open air, he was becoming quite
a sturdy little fellow, sun-tanned, with soft, thoughtful eyes
and a perky nose, and his incessant questions seemed to in-
dicate the possession of an intelligent and eager mind. But,
as yet, no attempt was made to educate him. His mother
was already busy with her lawyers, striving to enforce her
claims, and endeavouring also to obtain influential support.
When Thiers came to Abe some four months after !Fran§ois
Zola's death, the widow presented her little son to the great
man in the hope of thereby arousing his sympathy. And
Thiers certainly responded with fair words, though whether
he went further is doubtful. At all events, lawsuits were
started, and to the worry they entailed one must ascribe
the comparative neglect in which young Umile remained a
little longer.

At last, in the autumn of 1847, it was decided to send
him to school. Some doubt as to the result of the lawsuits
was already arising in the minds of Madame Zola and , her
parents, and they felt that they must at least provide for the
boy's future by giving him a sound education. It was sug-
gested that he should b© sent immediately to the College of
Aix — now called the Lyc^e Mignet; but as he did not

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 33

even know his letters, Madame Aubert, his grandmother,
sensibly decided to select a preparatory school. One was
found near the Notre Dame gate, from which it derived its
appellation of Pension Notre Dame. It was kept by a
worthy and indulgent pedagogue, named Isoard, who after
infinite trouble — for the boy was stubborn and bitterly re-
gretted his careless life in the open air — contrived to teach
him to read the Fables of La Fontaine. It was at this time
that young fimile formed his earliest life-friendships; he
became attached to two of his school-fellows, one of whom,
Solari, a sculptor of distinguished talent, is still alive, while
the other, Marius Roux, acquired a passing reputation as a
" popular " novel writer.1 These two were Zola's usual play-
mates at marbles, tops, and leap-frog, his first companions
also in the rambles in which he began to indulge.

For some reason or other, Madame Zola and the Auberts
moved from the Impasse Sylvacanne to the Pont-de-Beraud,
in the open country, on the road to Toulon, and then young
35 mile had fields before him with a picturesque stream, the
Torse, so called on account of its capricious windings — "a
torrent in December, the most timid of rivulets in the fine
weather," as he called it afterwards in his " Contes a Ninon."
And the charms of the country, the inviting banks of the
Torse, often made a truant of him, — a truant who remained
unpunished, for as his grandparents generally said : " It was
not right to cross the poor fatherless boy."

The position of the family was now, however, becoming
difficult. The widow's savings were dwindling away in

1 Among Ms works, which in the first instance generally appeared
letons in Paris newspapers, were "Eugenie Lamour," " Francis et Mariette,"
'* Les Manages Jannes," and "Evariste Planchn, Moeurs vraies du Quartier
Latin," the last named being perhaps his best book.

34 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

legal and living expenses ; and some who had been willing
to help her were at present unable to do so, having lost
authority, influence, and, at times, even means. France had
passed through a revolution, Louis Philippe had been over-
thrown; unrest was widespread throughout the period of
the Second Republic ; and when Louis Napoleon strangled
that r'egime in the night, Provence became convulsed, there
were risings, excesses, bloodshed, even as Smile Zola sub-
sequently depicted in the pages of " La Fortune des Rougon."
The new municipality of Aix, appointed after the Coup
d'etat, was not inclined to effect any reasonable compromise
with those Orl&nist protiges, the Zolas. One on whom
they had largely relied, Thiers, was himself virtually a fugi-
tive. Again, in those days of trouble the law's delays be-
came greater than ever; apart from which it would seem
that Madame Zola's actions were altogether ill-conducted.
Nevertheless, in the summer of 1852, though her affairs
were taking a very unfavourable course, and it was becom-
ing necessary to trench upon the investments whence the
Auberts derived their modest personal income, it was at last
decided to send Entile to the College of Aix. as a boarder ;
and the family, in order to be nearer to him, moved into the
town, its new home being in the Rue Bellegarde.

The boy could now see that the family resources were
diminishing. The last servant had been dismissed, and it
was his grandmother, the still lively and sturdy Beauceronne,
who attended to most of the housework. Moreover, she
and her daughter had largely taken the lad into their con-
fidence, and he, precociously realising that his future would
most likely depend on his own exertions, resolved to turn
over a new leaf. Though his love for the open air in no

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 35

wise diminished, he studied profitably from the time of
entering the College of Aix in October, 1852. He was
placed in the seventh class (the lowest but one), and at the
expiration of the school year, in August, 1853, he was awarded
first prizes for history and geography, recitation, and the
translation of Latin into French, and second prizes for gram-
mar, arithmetic, religious instruction, and the translation of
French into Latin.1 In the following year, in the sixth class,
he was less successful, some antipathy, it is said, existing
between him and one of the professors.2 Nevertheless, his
name was inscribed on the tableau d'honneur, and he ob-
tained a first prize for history and geography, a first accessit 3
in religious instruction, and third accessits in excellence
and recitation.

Next, 1854-1855, he passed into the fifth class, in which he
gained two first prizes for Latin, translation and composition ;
a second prize for the translation of Greek into French ; a
first accessit in excellence, and third accessits in French, his-
tory, geography, and recitation. At the end of the ensuing
school year, when he joined the fourth class, he secured four
first prizes — excellence, Latin composition, Latin verse,
translation from Latin into French ; and three second prizes
— history and geography, grammar, and Greek exercise.
Finally, in 1856-1857 (his last completed year, spent in the
third class) he was awarded : the tableau d'honneur prize, first
prizes for excellence, French composition, arithmetic, geom-
etry, physics, chemistry, natural history, and recitation;
second prizes for religious instruction and translation from

1 "Palmares dn College d'Aix," 1853 ** seq.

2 P. Alexis, 1. c., p. 21.

8 An accessit is a distinction conferred, in French colleges, on the three
pupils who come nearest to a prize winner.

36 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE

the Latin; with a first accessit in history and geography.
He was then in Ms eighteenth year, and if prize-winning
might be taken as a criterion, there was every likelihood
that he would achieve a distinguished career.

But one must now go hack a little, for other matters
marked those school days at Aix. At first the boy boarded
at the college, then he became a half-boarder, and finally an
externe, or day pupil, taking his meals at home ; these
changes being necessitated by the gradually declining posi-
tion of his family. Already while he was a boarder, that is,
barely in his teens, his literary bent began to assert itself, a
perusal of Michaud's "Histoire des Croisades" inspiring
him to write a romance of the middle ages, copiously pro-
vided with knights, Saracens, and fair damsels in distress.
That boyish effort, though the almost illegible manuscript
was preserved through life by its author, remained un-
printed; and a like fate attended a three-act comedy in
verse, entitled " Enfonc£ le Pion," or « The Usher Outwitted/'
However, given these literary leanings, and a fervent ad-
miration for some of the poets, as will presently be shown,
it may at first seem strange that on entering the third class
in 1856, and being called upon to choose between letters
and sciences, Zola, then over seventeen, should have selected
the latter. In this respect, as Paul Alexis says, he was
influenced in part by the fact that, however proficient he
might be in the dead languages, he had no real taste for
them, whereas the natural sciences interested him ; but his
choice was also partially governed by the fact that he was
the son of an engineer, and that a scientific career would be
in accordance with his parentage. In his studies he was
guided by one simple, self-imposed rule, a rule which he

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 37

carried into his after-life, and winch largely proved the
making of him. He did not eschew play and other recrea-
tion, he did not spend interminable hours in poring over
books, there was nothing "goody-goody" about him; but
he invariably learnt his lessons, prepared his exercises,
before he went to play. And, all considered, no more
golden rule can be offered to the schoolboy.

Zola and his disciple Paul Alexis, who also studied at
the Aix College, have sketched it as it was at that time — a
former convent, old and dank, with a somewhat forbidding
frontage, a dark chapel, and grimly barred windows facing
a quiet little square, on which still stands the rococo foun-
tain of the Four Dolphins. Within the gate were two large
yards, one planted with huge plane trees, and the other
reserved chiefly for gymnastic exercises, while all around were
the class-rooms, the lower ones dismal, damp, and stuffy, and
the upper ones more cheerful of aspect, with windows over-
looking the greenery of neighbouring gardens. The refectory
again was quite a den, always redolent of dish-water ; but
comparative comfort might be found in the infirmary, man-
aged by some "gentle sisters in black gowns and white
coifs." The masters, if Zola's subsequent account of them
in "L'GEuvre" may be trusted, were generally ridiculed by
the boys, who gave them opprobrious nicknames. One,
never known to smile, was called " Rhadamantus " ; another,
" who by the constant rubbing of his head had left his mark
on the wall behind every seat he occupied, was named,
plumply, € Filth ' " ; and a third had his wife's repeated in-
fidelity openly cast in his face.

Of course, the boys also had their nicknames, Zola, says
Paul Alexis, acquiring that of "Franciot," or "Frenchy,"

38 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER

which was given him because his pronunciation of various
words differed from that of his Provencal school-fellows.
This was not to be wondered at, the parent to whom he
owed his mother tongue being a Beauceronne. Other anec-
dotes which picture him suffering from an impediment in
his speech may be taken with a grain of salt, perhaps, as
the official records show that he gained prizes and accessits
for recitation. As had been the case at the Pension Notre
Dame, he formed a close friendship with a few of his school-
fellows. One of these was a lawyer's son, named Marguery,
a bright, merry" lad with musical tastes, who a few years
later, to the general amazement, blew his brains out in a fit
of insanity. Another was Antony Valabrkgue, afterwards a
tasteful poet, whose family, curiously enough, became con-
nected with that of Captain Dreyfus. Valabr&gue being
some years younger than Zola, their companionship at school
did not go very far; but they subsequently corresponded,
and intimacy ensued between them. At the college Zola's
more particular chums were Cezanne and Bailie, the former
afterwards well known as an impressionist painter, the
second as a professor at the Ecole Poly technique. Bailie,
C&zanne, and Zola became inseparables ; and though all three
were fairly diligent pupils in class-time, they indulged in
many a boyish prank together during the earlier years of
their sojourn at the college.

One morning, in a spirit of mischievousness, they burnt
the shoes of a school-fellow, a lank lad called Mimi4a-Mort,
alias the Skeleton Day Boarder, who smuggled snuff into
the school. Then one winter evening they purloined some
matches in the chapel and smoked dry chestnut leaves in
reed pipes there. Zola, who was the ringleader on that

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 39

occasion, afterwards frankly confessed his terror; owning
that a cold perspiration had come upon him as he scrambled
out of the dark choir. Again, another day, C&anne hit
upon the idea of roasting some cock-chafers in Ms desk to
see whether they were good to eat, as people said they were.
So terrible became the stench, so dense the smoke, that the
usher rushed for some water, under the impression that
the place was on fire. At another time they sawed off the
wooden seats in one of the courtyards, and carried them like
corpses round the basin of so-called ornamental water in the
centre* of the yard, other boys joining them, forming in pro-
cession, and singing funeral dirges. But in the midst of it
all, Bailie, who played the priest, tumbled into the basin
while trying to scoop some water into his cap, which was to
have served as a holy-water pot.1

The three inseparables engaged also in many a stone-
throwing fight with the town lads, clambered over the old,
crumbling, ivy-clad ramparts, and basked on " King Rent's
chimney " 2 on occasions when the mistral thundered by, —
" buffeting the houses, carrying away their roofs, dishevelling
the trees, and raising great clouds of dust, while the sky
became a livid blue, and the sun turned pale," 3 There were
excursions also, sometimes by way of escorting regiments,
which on changing garrison passed through the town, at
other moments on the occasion of religious processions when

1 Zola's "L'CEuvre," Chap. II.

2 " If it is good King Rene" whom you seek, you will find Mm at this time
walking in his chimney . . . the narrow parapet yonder ; it extends between
these two towers, has an exposure to the south, and is sheltered in every other
direction. Yonder it is his pleasure to walk and enjoy the "beams of the sun
on such cool mornings as the present. It nurses, he says, his poetical vein."
— Scott's " Anne of Geierstein," Chap. XXIX.

* Zola's " Le Docteur Pascal."

40 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the clergy appeared in their finest vestments, their acolytes
swinging censers and ringing bells, the military and muni-
cipal bands discoursing music, the white-gowned girls carry-
ing banners, and the boys scattering roses and golden broom.
Although fimile Zola eventually lost all faith in the
dogmas of the Roman Church, the pomp of its cult impressed
him throughout his life, as is shown by many passages in
his works. And in his boyhood the processions of Aix
delighted him. He himself sometimes took part in them —
acting on at least one occasion, in 1856, as a clarionet player
of the college fanfare, for his friend Marguery had imparted
to him some taste for music.

• Then as now Aix had its theatre, which Zola and his
young friends patronised whenever they could afford a franc
for a pit seat ; but they eschewed cafi life and the gambling
which usually attends it in the provinces, for whenever
they had time at their disposal they infinitely preferred to
roam the country. The environs of Aix are strangely pic-
turesque. There is the famous Mont Ste. Victoire, ascended
through thickets of evergreen' oaks and holly, pines, wild
roses, and junipers, till at last only some box plants dot the
precipitous slopes, veined like marble; while in a cavern
near the summit is the weird bottomless pit of Le Garagay,
whose demon-spirits Margaret of Anjou vainly interrogated
in "Anne of Geierstein." Again, there is the historic castle
of Vauvenargues, the ruined castle of Puyricard, the her-
mitage of St. Honorat; and there are other mountainous
hills with goat paths, gorges, and ravines, and also stretches
of plain, watered now by the Arc or the Torse, now by the
canal which Fran§ois Zola planned. In his son's youth
that canal had not yet transformed ' the thirsty expanse;

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 41

when 13 mile roamed the region with his friends "the red
and yellow ochreous fields, spreading under the oppressive
sun, were for the most part planted merely with stunted
almond and olive trees, with branches twisted in positions
which seemed to suggest suffering and revolt. Afar off,
like dots on the bare stripped hills, one saw only the white-
walled "bastides, each flanked by dark, bar-like cypresses.
The vast expanse was devoid of greenery ; but on the other
hand, with the broad folds and sharply defined tints of its
desolate fields, it possessed some fine outlines of a severe,
classic grandeur."1

Apart from the plain, but very characteristic of the region,
were the Internet gorges, near which Francois Zola planned
one of his huge reservoirs. There one found "a narrow
defile between giant walls of rock which the blazing sun
had baked and gilded. Pines had sprung up in the clefts.
Plumes of trees, appearing from below no larger than tufts
of herbage, fringed the crests and waved above the chasm.
This was a perfect chaos. With its many sudden twists,
its streams of blood-red soil, pouring from each gash in its
sides, its desolation and its solitude, disturbed only by the
eagles hovering on high, it looked like some spot riven by
the bolts of heaven, some gallery of hell." 2

There were also the villages, whose houses, at times, were
mere hovels of rubble and boards, some squatting amid
muck-heaps, and dingy with woeful want; others more
roomy and cheerful, with roofs of pinkish tiles- Strips of
garden, victoriously planted amid stony soil, displayed plots
of vegetables enclosed by quickset hedges. Much of the
aridity of the region had arisen from the ruthless def orest-

i " Le Docteur Pascal." * Ibid.

42 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

ing of the hills ; formerly the falling leaves had spread rich
vegetable soil over the mountain flanks, there had been good
pasture for sheep where barren crags alone were left, and
the climate, equalised by the moisture of the woods, had
been less abrupt and violent in its changes.1 Yet, in Zola's
youth, as now, " wherever there was the smallest spring, the
smallest brook, the glowing land still burst into powerful
vegetation, and a dense shade prevailed, with paths lying
deep and delightfully cool between plane trees, horse-chest-
nuts, and elms, all growing vigorously." 2

Those various scenes were a delight to Zola and his
friends. " They craved for the open air, the broad sunlight,
the sequestered paths in the ravines. They roamed the
hills, rested in green nooks, returned home at night through
the thick dusk of the highways. In winter they relished
the cold, the frosty, gaily echoing ground, the pure sky>
and the sharp atmosphere. In summer they always assem-
bled beside the river — the willow-fringed Arc — for the
water then became their supreme passion, and they spent
whole afternoons bathing, swimming, paddling, and stretch-
ing themselves to dry on the fine sun-warmed sand. In the
autumn they became sportsmen — inoffensive ones, for there
is virtually no game, scarcely even a rabbit, in the district,
and at the most one might bring down an occasional petty-
chap, fig-pecker, or some other small bird. But if, now and
again, they fired a shot, it was chiefly for the pleasure of
making a noise, and their expeditions always ended in the
shade of a tree, where they lay on their backs, chatting
freely of their preferences." 8

* " The Athenaeum," No. 3686, June 18, 1898, p. 785,

* " Le Docteur Pascal/'

8 Zola's " Documents LitteYaires," p. 88 (abbreviated).

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOKMEE 43

A little later, when Zola's young muse essayed her flight,
he recalled those days of Provence, singing :

" 0 Provence, des pleurs s'e'chappent de mes yeux
Quand vibre sur anon luth ton nom, me'lodieux. . . »
0 region d'amour, de parfum, de lumiere,
II me serait bien doux de t'appeler ma mere. . . .
Autour d'Aix, la romaine, il n'est pas de ravines,
Pas de rochers perdus au penchant des collines,
Dans la valise en fleur pas de lointains sentiers,
Ou, Ton ne puisse voir Fempreinte de mes pieds. . . .
ficolier £chapp6 de la docte prison,
Et jetant aux £chos son rire et sa chanson,
Adolescent reVeur poursuivant sous tes sanies
La nymphe dont il croit voir blanchir les e*paules,
Jusqu'aux derniers taillis j'ai couru-tes for£ts,
0 Provence, e*t fou!6 tes lieux les plus secrets.
Mes Idvres nommeraient chacune de tes pierres,
Chacun de tes buissons perdus dans tes clairieres.
J'ai jou^ si longtemps sur tes coteaux fleuris,
Que brins d'herbe et graviers me sont de vieux amis." 1

Those rambles undoubtedly helped to rouse a sense of
poetry in Zola and his companions. Besides providing
themselves with provisions, — at times a small joint of raw
mutton and some salad plants, which they cooked or dressed
in the wilds, — they carried books, volumes of the poets, in
their pockets or their bags. One year, 1856, Victor Hugo
reigned over them like an absolute monarch. They were
conquered by the majesty of his compositions, enraptured
by his powerful rhetoric. His dramas haunted them like
splendid visions. After being chilled by the classic mono-
logues which they were compelled to learn by heart at the
college, they felt warmed, transported into an orgy of quiv-
ering ecstacy, when they lodged passages of "Hernani" and
"Buy Bias" in their minds. Many a time, on the river-

i Zola's " L'A&ienne " (1860) in Alexis, I c., p. 265 et se$.

44 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

bank, after bathing, they acted some scenes together.1 In-
deed, they knew entire plays, and on the way home, in the
twilight, they would adapt their steps to the rhythm of
those lines which were sonorous like trumpet-blasts. But
a day came when one of them produced a volume of Alfred
de Musset's poems, the perusal of which set their hearts
quivering. From that hour their worship for Hugo received
a great blow, his lines fled from their memories, and
Musset alone reigned over them. He became their con-
stant companion in the hollows, the grottoes, the little
village inns where they rested ; and, again and again, they
read " Rolla " or the « Nights," aloud.2

Thus their young natures awoke to love. Cezanne and
Bailie were then about eighteen years of age; Zola was
seventeen. But their aspirations remained full of ideality.
There were a few brief, uncertain attempts at love-making,
nipped in the bud by circumstances. Already, before the
time we have now reached, Zola, or his musically minded
friend Marguery, or perhaps both, had nursed a boyish
flame for the fair-haired daughter of a local haberdasher, and
had serenaded her in company, the former with his clarionet,
the latter with a cornet-&~piston, until one evening the indig-
nant parents emptied their water-jugs over them. Later
Zola dreamt of encountering "fair beings in his rambles,
beautiful maidens, who would suddenly spring up in some
strange wood, charm him for a whole day, and melt into air
at dusk." 8 And at last a young girl, Gratienne, flits by in
the moonlight near the Clos des Chartreux, with her heavy

1 Zola's " Nos Auteurs Dramatizes,'7 p. 42,

2 " Documents Litt&aires," p. 90.
* " I/CEuvry Chap. II,

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 45

tresses of raven hair resting on her young white neck ; 1 but
even she remains little more than a vision, and as yet,
neither into Zola's life nor his friends' does woman, the real
creature of flesh and blood, really enter, to achieve that
work of disillusion by which she almost invariably destroys
the youthful ecstacy which she, or her semblance, has in-
spired. Ninon, the Ninon of the "Contes,"2 comes later.
As yet she is only dreamt of, though the name by which
she is to be known to the world is already suggested by an
old gravestone in the cemetery, with only the word " Nina "
remaining of its time-worn inscription :

" Ami, te souviens-tu de la tombe noircie,

Tout ail bord d'une all^e, a demi sous les fleurs,
Qui nous retint longtemps, et nous laissa reveurs ?

Le marbre en est ronge par les vents et la pluie.
Elle songe dans 1'herbe et, discrete, se tait,

" Souriante et sereine au blond soleil de mai.

" Elle songe dans 1'herbe, et, de sa reverie,
'. La tombe, chastement, & ceux qui passent la,
Ne livre que le nom effac6

Ami, te souviens-tu, nous la rev&mes belle,
Et depuis, bien souvent, sans jamais parler d'elle,
Nos regards se sont dit, dans un dernier regret r
* Si je 1'avais connue, oh ! Ninette vivrait ! ' " *

But serious trouble was now impending in Zola's home.
While he studied at the college, while his heart opened and

1 Zola's Yerses, " A mes Amis " (Lycee St. Louis, 1858).

2 Zola's first book, inspired largely by memories of Provence, and issued in
Paris in 1864.

* Zola's "Nina," 1859. Readers of "La Fortune des Kougon" (which
Zola wrote some ten years later) will remember that the old tombstone figures
also in that work, in which the inscription is given as "Here lieth . , . Marie
. . » died . . . ," the finger of time having effaced the rest. There is, how-
ever, an evident connection between the names Nina and Ninon, and perhaps
they suggested Nana.

46 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER

Ms mind expanded, the position of his mother and grand-
parents gradually became desperate. All the savings, even
the Auberts* funds, were exhausted; the lawsuits still
dragged on, entailing heavy costs, which drained the home
of all resources. Already in 1855, the rent in] the Kue
Bellegarde proving too heavy, it became necessary to take
a cheaper lodging on the Cours des Minimes. Then, early
in 1857, that also was found too dear ; and two little rooms
were rented at the corner of the Eue Mazarine. They over-
looked the Barri,1 a lane-like chemin-de-ronde encompassing
the old town, with small and sordid houses on one hand,
and the crumbling ramparts on the other.

Here black ruin fell upon the Zolas and the Auberts.
The aged but active grandmother toiled to the very last,
managing the household, raising money on goods and chat-
tels, resisting the wolf at the door with all the energy of
despair. Bit by bit, every superfluous article of furniture
was sold; remnants of former finery were carried to the
wardrobe dealers, to obtain the means of purchasing daily
bread and paying Smile's college fees. As for the lawsuits,
they remained in abeyance from lack of funds. And blow
following blow, poor Madame Aubert could at last resist no
longer, but sickened and died. That happened in Novem-
ber, 1857. During the previous month Emile Zola had
returned to the college, entering the second class. Towards
Christmas his despairing mother started, alone, for Paris, to
implore the help of some of the personages who had for-
merly favoured her husband. The old and almost helpless
Monsieur Aubert remained at Aix with his young grand-
son, who, after an anxious period of suspense, received
1 From the mediaeval Latin, bamum (Duoange).

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER 47

in February a letter from Ms mother, running much as
follows :

" It is no longer possible to continue living at Aix:. Sell
the little furniture that is left. You will in any case obtain
sufficient money to enable you to take third-class tickets to
Paris for yourself and your grandfather. Manage it as soon
as possible. I shall be waiting for you."

Young Smile acted in accordance with those instructions,
but he could not tear himself away from Aix tod his friends
without making with the latter a farewell excursion to Le
Tholonet and the larrage of the canal reservoir planned by
his father. When he at last took the train with old M.
Aubert, his heart was heavy at the thought that he might
never see Provence again. But in that respect his fears
were not realised.

On reaching Paris, he found his mother residing at No. 63
Eue Monsieur-le-Prince, near the Luxembourg palace. She
had obtained some assistance from friends, one of whom,
Maitre Labot,1 recommended 15 mile to D&sir£ Nisard, the
critic and historian, famous for having tried to demon-
strate that there were two moralities ; and Nisard speedily
procured him a free scholarship at the Lycde or college of
St. Louis. This was by Madame Zola's express wish, for,
however great might be her misfortunes, she desired that
her son might continue his studies.

But Paris now seemed a horrible place to the youthful
Smile. All was gloom there. Orsini, Pieri, and Eudio had
attempted the life of Napoleon III outside the opera-house
a few weeks previously, and a kind of terror prevailed under
the iron rule of General Espinasse and the new Law of

i See ante, p. 27.

48 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOKMER

Public Safety. Zola regretted the hills and the sun of Pro-
vence, the companionship of Bailie and Cdzanne ; he felt lost
among his new school-fellows, four hundred in number ; and
his poverty and shabbiness increased his bitterness of spirit,
for the lads attending St. Louis were all more fortunately
circumstanced than himself. That Lyc^e, which then faced
the Eue de la Harpe — the transformation of the old Quar-
tier Latin by the tracing of the Boulevard St. Michel being
as yet uneffected — ranked third among the great colleges
of Paris ; and among those who had sat on its benches
were the second Dr. Baron Corvisart, Gounod the com-
poser, Egger the Hellenist and poet, Havet the Latinist
and historian of early Christianity, and Nettement, whose
account of French literature under the Restoration isi
still worthy of perusal. Other pupils, before Zola's time,
were Henri Eochefort the erratic journalist and politician,
Charles Floquet the advocate, who became prime minister
of France ; Dr. Tripier, one of the pioneers in the application
of electricity to medicine, and the well-known General de
Galliffet. Many of the professors also were able men who
rose to eminence, and in such a college one might have
thought that Zola would have made decisive progress.

As it happened, he not only got on badly with his school-
fellows,— who on account of the southern accent he had
acquired in Provence nicknamed him the " Marseillese,"
— but, yielding to a brooding spirit, he neglected his
lessons. It was only in French composition that he occa-
sionally distinguished himself. One day, it appears, when
the allotted subject was "Milton dictating 'Paradise Lost'
to his daughter," he treated it so ably that the professor,
M. Levasseur, — the eminent historian of the French work-

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 49

ing classes, — publicly complimented him. Truth to tell, he
now read a great deal, even in class time, still devouring the
poets, but finding a delight also in Eabelais, Montaigne, and
other prose authors. And he carried on an interminable
correspondence with his friends in Provence, at times ad-
dressing them in verse, at others launching into discussions
on philosophy, morals, and aesthetics. It was now, too, that
he wrote his tale, " La Fde Amoureuse," which was therefore
the earliest of his " Contes k Ninon," in which volume it
afterwards appeared. Thus, in spite of his declared prefer-
ence for a scientific career, his literary bent was steadily
asserting itself.

At the end of his school year his only award was a second
prize for French composition. Nevertheless, his mother,
having scraped a little money together, allowed him to go to
Provence for the vacation, which he spent with Bailie and
C&sanne. But on coming back to Paris in October he fell ill
with a mucous fever of such severity that more than once a
fatal issue was feared. When, after a period of convales-
cence, he returned to St. Louis, there entering the rhetoric
class, two months had been lost and he still felt weak.
Thus, though his new master, M. Lalanne, commended some
of his work, notably his compositions, his progress was
not great, particularly as his mind turned so frequently to
Provence and his friends there, and hesitated between the
scientific avocations of his choice and an increasing ambition
to become a poet. When, however, the school year ended
in August, 1859, his mother's position being as precarious as
ever, he resolved to make an effort. He would skip the
philosophy class and at once offer himself as a candidate
for the degree of bachelor in sciences — that, or a corre-

50 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

sponding degree in letters, being a necessary passport for
eventual admission into the recognised professions or the
government service.

The result of Zola's attempt was singular. In his written
examination he proved very successful, his name appearing
second on the list ; but in the ensuing mvft-wce examina-
tion, after securing good marks in physics, chemistry, and
natural history, fair ones in pure mathematics, algebra,
and trigonometry, he collapsed in literature and modern
languages. He post-dated Charlemagne's death by five
hundred years, scandalised the examiner by a romantic
interpretation of one of La Fontaine's fables, and virtually
confessed his utter ignorance of German. Thus his mark
was zero ; and though, it would seem, the examiners in
sciences interceded in his favour with the examiner in lelles
lettres, the latter remained obdurate and would not modify
the mark. Zola was therefore " sent back," for it was not
allowable that a bachelor in sciences should be absolutely
nul en litterature.1

Several years previously Alexandre Dumas fits had been
" ploughed " for the very same reason. Two distinguished
men of Zola's own generation, Alphonse Daudet and Fran-
<jois Coppfe, also failed to secure bachelors' degrees ; yet, like
Zola himself, they became eminent writers. Of course it is
impossible to found any valid argument for or against
degrees on a few isolated instances. It may be doubted,
perhaps, whether they are any great recommendation to the
literary man who is a dramatist or a novelist or a poet.
But Zola's literary aspirations did not enter into his scheme
when he offered himself for examination ; he merely wished

1 Alexis, L c.t pp. 40, 41.

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 51

to secure a certificate, as it were, qualifying him for em-
ployment in one of the semi-scientific hranches of the gov-
ernment service. In that respect his failure was a severe
disappointment, particularly to his mother, who had set all
her hopes upon him, and was distressed to find that the
promise of his college days at Aix remained unfulfilled. At
the same time, mother-like, she blamed the examiners more
than she blamed him, and once more she provided him with
enough money to spend the summer vacation in Provence.1
A week after he had been " ploughed " at the Sorbonne, Zola
was again roaming the hills, in a blouse and hob-nailed
boots, accompanied by his usual intimates.

There was also no little writing of poetry on Zola's part
during those holidays, the influence of Musset still being in
the ascendant, as is shown by a piece entitled " Rodolpho,"
in which one can further detect the change which Parisian
life, particularly that of the Quartier Latin, where he had
his home, was now effecting in the youth who had awoke,
in Provence, to little more than ideal love. Musset like-
wise inspires some verses entitled " Vision," also dating from
this time ; but a perusal of the " Contes de La Fontaine," a
book which no discipline seems able to keep out of French
colleges, plainly suggested "Le Diable ermite," in which the
good Abb^s erotic style was imitated only too successfully.
Another piece, entitled " Religion," shows that the young
versifier, the former winner of prizes for " religious instruc-
tion," was already losing his faith under the influence, no
doubt, of Parisian surroundings. In this effort he is found

1 It seems probable that lie had already spent Ms Easter holidays there that
year ; for some of his verses, "Ce <p.e je veux," are dated Aix, May, 1859.
See Alexis, L c., p. 297.

52 1JSMTLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOBMER

calling on the Deity to manifest himself in order that
he may believe in him, asking the why and the wherefore
of things, and displaying a grim consciousness of the
wretchedness of mankind. There are lines in this poem
of his twentieth year which suggest the Zola of the last
stage:

" Helas ! que tout est noir dans la valise humaine !
Les homines en troupeaux se parquent dans la plaine,
Vivant BUT des £gouts, qu*entoure un mur croulant."

As his vacation drew to a close, Zola once more bestirred
himself, and, after consultation with his friends, decided to
make another attempt to secure the diploma which would
prove an " open sesame " to regular employment. But he
did not care to face the Paris examiners again ; he preferred
to try those of Marseilles, thinking, perhaps, that they
might prove more indulgent. So, taking up his books to
refresh Ms memory, he lingered in Provence till November.
At Marseilles, however, even his comparative success in
Paris was denied him. He failed with his preliminary
papers and was not even summoned for the vivfi-voce ex-
amination. That defeat was decisive. When he returned
to Paris he found his mother cast down by it ; the friends
who helped her had lost all faith in his ability. It was
useless for him to return to the Lyce*e. In another four
months he would be twenty years of age ; he must no longer
remain a burden on others, it was time for him to earn his
own living. But how was he to do so ? The outlook was
gloomy indeed.

Ill

BOHEMIA — DRUDGEBY — FIRST BOOKS

1860-1866

A clerkship at the Docks Napoleon — Peregrinations through, the Quartier
Latin — Zola joined there by Ce"zanne — He lives in a glass cage —
"L'Amoureuse Come"die" — Poetry and poverty — ''Genesis" —
Spring rambles — The Quartier Latin in 1860 — Love in a garret — "La
Confession de Claude," and the den in the Hue Soufflot — The fairy of
one's twentieth year — Terrible straits — " Playing the Arab " — " Good
for nothing " — Help from Dr. Boudet — Zola is engaged by M. Hachette
and emerges from Bohemia — Hachette' s authors and Zola — Fresh Pere-
grinations — Short stories — Zola's * * band " — His correspondence with
Antony Valabregue — " Contes & Ninon " — Zola weaned from idyl and
fable — *' Madame Bovary " — Duality of Zola's nature — His improved
circumstances — Newspaper articles — The lesson, of " Henriette Mare-
chal " — ** La Confession de Claude " published — Zola's opinion of it —
Barbey d'AureVilly's attack and a threatened prosecution — Zola quits
Hachette's, and refuses to pander to fools.

AFTER choosing a scientific career, and then aspiring to
poetic fame as great as that of Hugo or Musset, to sink even
momentarily to a junior clerkship, worth sixty francs a
month,1 at the " Docks " in the Rue de la Douane, was hard
indeed. Yet such became Zola's fate. Some who have
written of the episode have fallen into various errors. An
American account says that the young man "became a dock
labourer; an English biographer has referred to his place
of employment as a business house. But on consulting any
plan of Paris as it was in 1860 or thereabouts, it will be
seen that a great entrepot, with offices for the collection of
the state customs and the municipal dues, then adjoined the

1 £2 8s. ; or about $12.

54 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE

" Docks Napoleon," where goods, coining into Paris by the
St. Martin Canal, were landed. The establishment of this
entrepot and its adjuncts was carried out between 1833 and
1840 ; 1 the adjoining Eue de la Douane took its name from
the enterprise ; and it was there, then, that Zola, after fail-
ing at his examinations, secured employment as a clerk, the
situation being found for him by his father's friend, Maltre
Labot, the advocate.

But the salary was the barest pittance. How could a
young man of twenty live, in Paris, on two francs a day ?
Moreover, there was no prospect whatever of any "rise."
At the expiration, therefore, of two months, — after trudging
a couple of miles twice a day between the "Docks" and
the Quartier Latin, passing on the road the great Central
Markets, whose wondrous life he now began to observe, —
Zola threw up this employment; and from the beginning
of March, 1860, till the end of that year, then all through
1861, and the first three months of 1862, he led a life of
dire Bohemian poverty. On arriving in Paris in February,
1858, he had lived with his mother at 63, Eue Monsieur-le-
Prince. Thence, in January, 1859, they had moved to 241,
Eue St. Jacques, a narrow and ancient thoroughfare, long one
of the main arteries of Paris, intimately associated, too, with
the student history of the original Quartier Latin. But in
April, 1860, at the time when Zola quitted the " Docks," he
and his mother found a cheaper lodging at 35, Eue St. Victor,
another old street, on the slope of the "Montagne Ste.
Genev&ve," towards the Halle aux Vins and the Jardin des
Plantes.

Lock's " Dictionnaire topograpMque et historiqae de 1'ancien
Paris," Paiis, n. d. "but cir. 1856.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 55

Here Zola's room was one of a few lightly built garrets,
raised over the house-roof proper, and constituting a seventh
"floor"; the leads in front forming a terrace whence the
view embraced nearly all Paris. While Zola was lodging
here, living very precariously and trying by fits and starts
to secure some remunerative work, his friend Paul Cezanne
arrived from Aix with the hope of making his way in the
art world of the capital. Cezanne was more fortunately cir-
cumstanced than Zola, having a small monthly allowance to
depend upon ; and it was perhaps by way of helping his friend
that he at first took up his residence with him in that
seventh-floor garret. Zola was wonderfully cheered by the
companionship ; before long he again became as enthusiastic
as Cezanne, and the two friends dreamt of conquering Paris,
one as a poet, the other as a painter.

When the summer arrived they often laid a paillasse on
the terrace outside their attic, and spent the mild and starry
night in discussing art and literature. Moreover, while
Cezanne began to paint, Zola wrote another poem h la, Musset,
which he entitled " Paolo " ; as well as a tale, " Le Garnet de
Danse," which was subsequently included in " Les Contes k
Ninon/' But there was no improvement in his position.
Indeed, things went from bad to worse ; and in the autumn
of the year, as he had too much delicacy to sponge on C£-
zanne, whose allowance, moreover, was only just sufficient
for himself, they ceased to live together, though they re-
mained close friends.

About the same time Zola and his mother separated.
She, over a term of years, had now and again secured some
trifling sum of money by compromising one or another law-
suit - — sacrificing a considerable claim for little more than a

56 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

morsel of bread. For the rest, she was helped by a few rela-
tives of her own and by some friends of her deceased hus-
band* In October, 1860, as her son could not as yet provide
for her, she went to live at a pension in the Quartier Latin,
assisted there, perhaps, by some friends, or else obtaining
some employment in the house, for she was skilful with her
needle. At all events, her son found himself for a time
quite alone.

He now went to reside in the Rue Neuve St. ^Jtienne du
Mont, near the ancient church of that name, and his lodg-
ing, as usual, was at the very top of the house. This time
it was a kind of belvedere or glass cage in which Ber-
nardin de St. Pierre, the author of " Paul and Virginia," was
said to have sought a refuge from the guillotine during the
Eeign of Terror. It was there, then, amid all the breezes
of heaven, and inspired perhaps by the position of his re-
treat, that Zola wrote another poem, called " L'A6rienne,"
which he added to the pieces entitled "Rodolpho" and
"Paolo," the first written at Aix, the second in the Eue
St. Victor. These three compositions formed, as it were,
a trilogy which he named " L'Amoureuse Com^die," —
"Bodolpho" representing the hell, "L'A^rienne" the pur-
gatory, and "Paolo" the paradise of love.1 This done, he
sought a publisher, or, as Paul Alexis puts it, he imagined
he sought one.

As a matter of fact, this slim, pale-faced poet, in his
twenty-first year, with an incipient beard and long hair fall-
ing over his neck, had become extremely timid in every-
thing that pertained to ordinary life. He was not deficient
in will power, but misfortune — repeated rebuffs of all sorts

1 Portions of the three poems are printed by Alexis, I. c.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 57

— had deprived him of the ordinary confidence of youth in his
intercourse with others. His circumstances were desperate
enough. Alexis, when telling us that he composed his poem
" L'A^rienne " in his glass cage near the sky, during the ter-
ribly severe winter of 1860-1861, shows him fireless, shiver-
ing in bed, with every garment he possesses piled over his
legs, and his fingers red with the cold while he writes his
verses with the stump of a pencil

How does he live ? it may be asked. He himself hardly
knows. Everything of the slightest value that he possesses
goes to the Mont-de-Pi£td ; he timidly borrows trifling sums
of a few friends and acquaintances ; he dines off a penn'orth
of bread and a penn'orth of cheese, or a penn'orth of bread
and a penn'orth of apples ; at times he has to content him-
self with the bread alone. His one beverage is Adam's ale ;
it is only at intervals that he can afford a pipeful of tobacco ;
his great desire when he awakes of a morning is to procure
that day, by hook or crook, the princely sum of three sous
in order that he may buy a candle for his next evening's
work. At times he is in despair : he is forced to commit
his lines to memory during the long winter night, for lack
of the candle which would have enabled him to confide
them to paper.

Yet he is not discouraged. When " L'A^rienne " is finished,
he plans another poetic trilogy, which he intends to call
" Genesis." He is still at a loss for bread, but his chief con-
cern is to beg, borrow, or, if possible, buy the "books which
he desires to study before beginning his new poems. At
last he plunges into the perusal of scientific works, consults
Mourens on such subjects as longevity, instinct and intelli-
gence, genius and madness, dips into Zimmermann's account

58 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

of the origin of mankind and the marvels of human nature,
reads Lucretius and Montaigne again, and prepares a plan of
Ms intended composition. The first poem is to narrate " The
Birth of the World " according to the views of modern
science; the second — to be called "Mankind" — is to
form a synthesis of universal history ; while the third, the
logical outcome of the previous ones, is to be written in a
prophetic strain showing " The Man of the Future " rising
ever higher and higher, mastering every force of nature, and
at last becoming godlike.

But though that stupendous composition is long meditated,
only eight lines of it are actually written. The long winter
ends, the spring comes, and Zola turns to enjoy the sun-rays
— at times in the Jardin des Plantes, which is near his
lodging, at others along the quays of the Seine, where he
spends hours among the thousands of second-hand books
displayed for sale on the parapets. And all the life of the
river, the whole picturesque panorama of the quays as they
were then, becomes fixed in his mind, to supply, many years
afterwards, the admirable descriptive passages given in the
fourth chapter of his novel " L'CEuvre." There it is Claude
Lantier who is shown walking the quays with his sweet-
heart Christine. And Zola was certainly not alone every
time that he himself paced them. We know to what a
young man's fancy turns in springtime; and he was as
human as others. He lived, moreover, in the Quartier
Latin, which still retained some of its old freedom of life, in
spite of the many changes it was undergoing.

Baron Haussmann had set pick and spade to work there,
and many an ancient tenement and court had been swept
away in piercing the Rue des Ecoles and the Boulevard St.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOKMER 59

Michel, then called " Boulevard Sebastopol, Eive Gauche."
At that time the Chaumi&re was dead, the Prado also had
disappeared, and the Closerie des Lilas — afterwards known
as the Bal Bullier — had lately been renovated, in fact
transformed, as Privat d'Anglemont recorded in one of the
last sketches he wrote prior to his death in 1859. And
with the disappearance or alteration of the old dancing
places and tabagies, with the demolition of many an ancient
den and haunt, the inhabitants of the Quartier and their
manners and customs were likewise altering. In fact, there
was a great crisis in la vie de JBoMme. But though it was
no longer such as it had been pictured by Murger, such as
it had appeared to Theodore de Banville, who, recalling his
youth, described it briefly yet forcibly a few years later,1 it
would be a mistake to imagine that it was altogether dead.
Alphonse Daudet, who arrived in Paris from Ntmes a few
months before Zola entered the Lyc^e St. Louis, has shown
that many of the old habits and customs remained. Again,
the writer of these pages, who knew the Quartier Latin well
in the last years of the Second Empire, can recall that ves-
tiges of its former life clung to it even till the war of 1870.
There were still a few tenth-year students, still a few rapins,
still a few grisettes, of a kind, lingering within its precincts.
But the war proved the final coup de grace ; and the Quartier
of the Third Eepublic with its chic students, its gambling
hells, its demi-monde, its filles de "brasserie, its garish vulgar-
ity, its mock propriety, has resembled the old one in little
save its studiousness ; for, however much, for centuries
past, its young men may have amused themselves, what-

1 " Le Paris Guide par lea principaux SicriYairis de la France," Yol. II,
Paris, 1867.

60 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEK

ever their eccentricities, whatever their excesses, they have
also studied, accumulated in that same Quartier a rich store
of scholarship and science, which has enabled many of them
to confer benefits on mankind.

Zola, then, knew the former Quartier in its last lingering
hours, when there were no longer any taverners who sold
books for hard cash and bought them back for a snack or a
drink, but when old clo'men still perambulated the streets,
when La Californie and other IMnes still existed on the
confines, and when L'Acad4mie, the grimy absinthe den,
still flourished in the Eue St. Jacques under the patronage
of litterateurs who never wrote, painters who never painted,
and spurious students in law and medicine and what not
besides. Those were the men of whom one said: "When
they are not talking they drink, when they are not drink-
ing they talk." How they lived nobody knew, but one of
them, a notorious character, who after a few glasses of ab-
sinthe would improvise the most extraordinary comic songs
with rattling tunes, slept for some years in a stable. He
was turned out of it one winter, and a few days later was
found frozen to death in the moat of the fortifications near
Montrouge.

Zola, for his part, indulged in no such bibulous dissipa-
tion, but he elbowed it often enough. And in his dis-
tressful poverty, without guide or support, it was fatal that
he should turn to such consolation as might be offered
him. Thus he went the way of many another young man
dwelling in the Quartier, finding at last a companion for
his penury, not the ideal Ninon of whom he had dreamt
in Provence, not the Musette nor the Mimi whom Murger
portrayed with the help rather of his imagination than of

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOEMER 61

his memory, but such a one as the Bohemia of the time
still had to offer.

A glimpse of his life at that moment is given in a few
early newspaper articles, and particularly in one of his first
hooks, " La Confession de Claude," which pictured the shame-
less immorality prevailing in certain sets of the Quartier
Latin, and the weakness that came upon even a well-
meaning young man when cast into such a sphere. At the
same time romance is blended with fact in the " Confession " ;
and it would be quite a mistake to regard Claude's mis-
tress, Laurence, as a portrait of the young woman to whom
Zola became attached. At the same time, the aspirations
of his nature are well revealed in that book, which beneath
some literary exaggeration remains instinct with the genuine
disappointment of one who has found the reality of love
very different from his dream of it

Some passages are certainly autobiographical. The scene
is a maison meubUe, which stood near the Pantheon, in the
Eue Soufflot before that street was widened and rebuilt.
Zola betook himself thither on being expelled from his glass
cage near St. Etienne du Mont for non-payment of rent.
The house was tenanted by students, their mistresses and
other women, and the life led there was so riotous and dis-
orderly that more than once the police came down on the
place and removed some of the female tenants to the prison
of St. Lazare. Here, then, Zola gathered materials for " La
Confession de Claude"; here he elbowed his characters
Jacques, Paquerette, Laurence, and Marie, while sharing a
life of the greatest privation with the companion who had
come to him. "Provence, the broad, sunlit country-side, the
tears, the laughter, the hopes, the dreams, the innocence

62 MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

and pride of the past had all departed ; only Paris with its
mire, a garret and its misery, remained." l

Again, real episodes find a place in the " Confession," —
memories of early days ; rambles in the valley of the
Bifevre, amid the foetid stench of that sewer-like stream and
the acreous odour of its tanneries; the first visit to the
Closerie des Lilas, the disgust inspired there by the sight of
all the harlots with their paint, their cracked voices, and
their impudent gestures ; and then the excursion through
the waste lands of Montrouge, the paths and fields of Ar-
cueil and Bourg-la-Eeine, to Fontenay-aux-Roses, Sceaux,
and the Bois de Verri&res. But one need not imagine that
this trip was made with such a creature as the callous,
shameless, helpless Laurence ; for, in recounting the episode
elsewhere, Zola expressed himself as follows :

" I thought of my last excursion to Fontenay-aux-Roses
with the loved one, the good fairy of my twentieth year.
Springtime was budding into birth, the path was bordered
by large fields of violets. . . . She leant on my arm, lan-
guishing with love from the sweet odour of the flowers. . . .
Deep silence fell from the heavens, and so faint was the
sound of our kisses that not a bird in all the hedges showed
sign of fear. . . . We ascended to the woods of Verriferes,
and there, in the grass under the soft, fresh foliage, we
discovered some tiny violets. . . , Directly I found a fresh
one I carried it to her. She bought it of me, and the price
I exacted was a kiss. . . . And now amid the hubbub of the
Paris markets I thought of all those things, of all that
happiness. ... I remembered my good fairy, now dead and
gone, and the little bouquet of dry violets which I still

1 "La Confession de Claude," Nourelle fidition, 1903, p. 141.

EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 63

preserve in a drawer. When I returned home I counted
their withered stems : there were twenty, and over my lips
there passed the gentle warmth of my loved one's twenty
kisses." l

The man who has lived with a Laurence — the creature
who robs youth of all its flame and degrades it to the mire
— does not afterwards call her his good fairy. But what-
ever the liaison, whatever its origin and its ending, it was
certainly marked by most distressful circumstances. As
the winter of 1861 approached, Zola's poverty became terri-
ble. It was then, as he afterwards told Guy de Maupas-
sant,2 that he lived for days together on a little bread,
which, in Proven§al fashion, he dipped in oil; that he
set himself to catch sparrows from his window, roasting
them on a curtain rod; and that he "played the Axab,"
remaining indoors for a week at a time, draped in a cover-
let, because he had no garments to wear. Not only did
he himself starve, but the girl who shared his poverty
starved with him; and Paul Alexis and Maupassant and
"Claude's Confession" relate how, at one moment of des-
peration, on a bitter winter evening, after an unbroken
fast of thirty-six hours, he took off his coat on the Place
du Pantheon and bade his tearful companion carry it to
the pawnshop.

" It was freezing. I went home at the run, perspiring the
while with fear and anguish. Two days later my trousers

1 See E. A. Vizetelly's Introduction to "The Fat and the Thin" ("Le
Yentrede Paris") London, 1896. The original appeared in "Le Figaro,'
November 20, 1866 ; and Zola reprinted portions of it, altered out of regard
for his wife, in " Nouveaux Contes & Ninon," 1874.

2 "Kerne Bleue," March 10, 1883; and "Celehrite*s contemporaries, ''
Vol. I, Paris, 1883. „

64 ^IMJLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

followed my coat, and I was bare. I wrapped myself in a
blanket, covered myself as well as possible, and took such
exercise as I could in my room, to prevent my limbs from
stiffening. When anybody came to see me I jumped into
bed, pretending that I was indisposed."

Very little money can have been lent him on his few gar-
ments. He often used to say in after-life that the only coat
he possessed in that year of misery ended by fading from
black to a rusty green. Thus, when he went hither and
thither soliciting employment, he was very badly received.
"I gathered that people thought me too shabby. I was
told, too, that my handwriting was very bad ; briefly, I was
good for nothing. . . . Good for nothing — that was the
answer to my endeavours ; good for nothing — unless it were
to suffer, to sob, to weep over my youth and my heart. . . .
I had grown up dreaming of glory and fortune, I awoke to
find myself stranded in the mire."

But it is a long lane that has no turning. At the
close of 1861, an eminent medical man, Dr. Boudet of the
Academy of Medicine, who had either been connected with
the Lycde St. Louis or had acted as one of the examiners
when Zola had attempted to secure a bachelor's degree, gave
the young man a letter of recommendation to M. Louis
Hachette, the founder of the well-known publishing busi-
ness. Zola called at the firm's offices, but, for the time, he
could only obtain a promise of the first suitable vacancy.
Meantime, Dr. Boudet, moved by the sight of his pitiable
poverty, came to his help in an ingenious manner. On the
occasion of a new year the Parisiaus of the more prosperous
classes invariably exchange visiting cards, and the doctor
asked Zola to distribute those which he intended for his

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOKHER 65

friends. At the same time the worthy scientist slipped a
twenty-franc piece into the young man's hand as remunera-
tion for his trouble. This discreetly veiled charity at least
saved Zola from actual starvation during the festive season ;
but his heart remained heavy, and his feelings were not
devoid of envy when he found that several of the doctor's
cards were addressed to the prosperous parents of his former
school-fellows at St. Louis.

However, a month later, February, 1862, he entered the
"Bureau du Materiel" at Hachette's establishment, Ms
salary being fixed at a hundred francs a month, an average
of 2s. 8d. per diem;1 and his duties, during the first few
weeks, being confined to packing books for delivery. A
little later he was promoted to the advertising department,
with a slightly increased salary. He was now at least
" assured of daily bread. Naturally painstaking and consci-
entious, he had done with Bohemia for ever ; he had begun
life, he was saved." a

Yet it was only by force of will that he accustomed him-
self to a round of comparative drudgery. If Bohemianism
implied poverty, it meant liberty also ; and, like many of us,
Zola found it hard to have to work regularly, at set tasks
and set hours. Again, it worried him that he had no oppor-
tunity to read all the books that passed through his hands.
But necessity compelled obedience to discipline, and he
ended by discharging his clerkly duties fairly well, while
allowing full rein to his literary bent every evening and
every Sunday. He turned, however, from poetry to prose,
not, it would seem, because he doubted his poetical faculty,

1 About sixty-four cents, American currency.

2 Alexis, I. c,9 p. 56.

66 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER

but because after all his sufferings he was impatient for
success. Until that success should arrive he felt, rightly
enough, that for ten publishers who might be willing to buy
a volume of his prose he would not find one inclined to risk
money on a volume of his verse. Everything tends to
show, indeed, that the dreamer of the belvedere in the Eue
St. fitienne du Mont was awaking to full consciousness of
the stern and often unjust laws of the modern world, that,
enlightened, instructed by his sojourn in Bohemia, he was
ripening into a practical man.

In the advertising department of Messrs. Hachette's busi-
ness the young clerk became acquainted with some of the
authors whose works were published by the firm. He only
occasionally caught sight of such celebrities as Guizot, Lamar-
tine, Michelet, Littr£, and Duruy, the Minister of Public
Instruction ; but other writers dropped in to inquire what ar-
rangements were being made for launching some forthcoming
work, or how the sales of a recent book were progressing, for
that also was a matter with which Zola had to deal. Among
the men with whom he thus had some intercourse were mis-
cellaneous writers like Francis Wey, travellers like Ferdinand
de Lanoye, popular novelists like Amddfe Achard, a dozen
of whose fifty romances — largely of Dumas' semi-historical
pattern — were published by Hachette. Then there was
the scholarly Pr&vost-Paradol, to whom Zola was attracted,
for he had been professor of French literature at the
faculty of Aix before embracing journalism and becoming
a leading exponent of Orleanist doctrines, — liberal, though
scarcely democratic, views. His chief work, "La France
Nouvelle," a classic for all who would study the condi-
tion of French society in the middle period of the nine-

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 67

teenth century, was not yet written ; but Hachette already
issued his "Etudes sur les Moralistes Fran§ais" and his
" Essai sur I'Histoire Universelle."

Another visitor, one who called as a reviewer of the pro-
vincial press, not as an author, for he published his books
elsewhere, was Duranty, a young novelist with an original,
strongly marked personal talent, whose first book, " Le Mai-
heur d'Henriette G&ard," had proved fairly successful, but
who, in the end, failed to secure public recognition, though
Zola became quite an admirer of his work — in a measure,
perhaps, because it departed from most of the recognised
canons and showed Duranty to be a man who, appreciated
or not, followed his own bent and disdained to copy others.

But one of Hachette's leading authors at that time was
Edmond About, the " nephew of Voltaire/' who a few months
before Zola was engaged by the firm had given it his vivid
"Lettres d'un bon jeune homme," written aupas de charge,
to the music, as it were, of a flourish of trumpets. Then, in
1862, in Zola's time, Hachette published About's fanciful
" Gas de M. Gudrin," and in the following year his novel
"Madelon," which would be perhaps his best book had he
not insisted unduly on its setting, with the result that it
now seems somewhat old-fashioned. " Madelon," however,
is to About what " La Dame aux Camillas " is to Dumas JHst
"La Fille Elisa" to the Goncourts, " Sapho " to Daudet, and
"Nana" to Zola. The young clerk read this book with
keen and appreciative interest.

But of all the authors calling at his office, the one who
most frequently lingered there to chat for a few minutes
was the great critic Taine. He was then writing his " His-
toire de la Literature Anglaise " (1863-1864), and, on ac-

68 ^MELE ZOLA, NOVELIST AJSTD REFORMER

count, perhaps, of Ixis contributions to the Prench reviews
or of his "Philosophes classiques du XIXe S&cle" he
occasionally found letters awaiting him at Hachette's.
These were handed him by Zola, in whose presence he
opened them. At times they were simply abusive, at others
they warned him to be careful of his soul, and in either case
they were anonymous. But Taine on receiving any such
missive merely laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "It
is of no account," he would say, " it only comes from some
poor benighted country priest. I am anathema to the
village cures"

Zola received no help or encouragement from the authors
he met at Hachette's, but this is not surprising; in the
first years, at all events, they knew nothing of his literary
proclivities, and he was too timid to reveal them. He had
now moved from the den in the Rue Soufflot to an old house,
a former convent, in the Impasse St. Dominique, near the
Eue Royer Collard, where he occupied a monastic room,
overlooking a large garden. Thence he betook himself to
the Rue Neuve de la Pdpinifere, between the fortifications
and the Montparnasse cemetery, over which the view from
his window extended. But his peregrinations were inces-
sant, and at the beginning of the winter of 1863 he moved
again, this time to 7, Rue des Feuillantines, a turning out
of the Rue St. Jacques. Nearly all his spare time was given
to writing. Thinking of the Bohemianism from which he
had lately emerged, he began his novel " La Confession de
Claude " ; then put it by for a time, and devoted himself to
short stories. His "Fde Amoureuse"1 had been printed
in an Aix newspaper, "La Provence"; and he now (1863)

1 See ante, p. 49.

fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 69

secured the insertion of a story called " Simplice," and
another, "Le Sang," in the " Revue du Mois," issued at
Lille. Others followed: "Les Voleurs et 1'Ane," reminis-
cent of Bohemia ; " Soeur des Pauvres," written in full view
of the Montparnasse cemetery ; and " Celle qui m'aime," in
which, after f eerie, parable, and pure romance, a touch of
realism first appeared in Zola's work. He sent this last
tale to Henri de Villemessant for the latter's then weekly
journal, " Le Figaro," but the manuscript came back " declined
with thanks."

Another attempt to secure the honours of print, this time
with his poetic trilogy, "L'Amoureuse Corn^die," proved
equally unsuccessful. One Saturday evening, says Alexis,
he timidly deposited the manuscript on M. Hachette's table,
and on the Monday morning his employer sent for him. He
had glanced at the poems, and though he was not disposed
to publish them, he spoke to the young author in a kindly
and encouraging manner, raised his salary to two hundred
francs a month, and even offered him some supplementary
work. For instance, he commissioned him to write a tale
for one of Ms periodicals, one intended for children, and it
was then that Zola penned his touching " Soeur des Pauvres " ;
but M. Hachette deemed it too revolutionary in spirit, and
did not use it.

Zola's circumstances having now improved, he again
sought a new home, and finding commodious quarters at
278, Rue St. Jacques, near the military hospital of the Val
de (Mce, he took his mother to live with him. Her father,
the aged M. Aubert, who, it seems probable, had retained
or recovered some slender means in the course of the canal
lawsuits, had died in 1862; but around the mother and

70 $MHJE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

her son were now gathered the latter's early friends, who,
like Mm, had come from Aix to Paris. Paul C&zanne,
Jean-Baptiste Bailie, Marius Roux, and Solari, with Zola
himself, formed a small, enthusiastic, ambitious band, such
as was afterwards described so faithfully in "L'CEuvre."
From time to time also, Antony Valabrkgue, the future
poet and critic, visited the capital, and on returning to
Aix corresponded with Zola, whose letters1 were very
interesting.

One gleans from them that in 1864 Zola submitted some
of his poetical pieces to L'Acaddmie des Jeux Floraux of
Toulouse, which * crowned " none of them ; that he attended
the evening literary lectures at the Salle des Conferences
in the Rue de la Paix, and " reported," for some paper which
is not specified, the accounts given of Chopin, " Gil Bias,"
Shakespeare, Aristophanes, La Bruy&re's " Caractkres," Miche-
let's "37 Amour" and the philosophy of Moli&re.2 In April
that year he had as yet done nothing with the various short
stories to which reference has been made ; and he thought
of leaving them in abeyance while he completed the novel,
"La Confession de Claude," which he had begun in 1862.
Three months later, however, the stories were sold, and
Zola wrote to Valabr&gue : " The battle has been short, and
I am astonished that I have not suffered more. I am now
on the threshold : the plain is vast and I may yet break

* "La Grande Berne," Paris, 1893, Vol. XXVI, pp. 1-19, 241-262.

2 These lectures were given first in the Rue de la Paix, later in the Rue
Cadet, and later still in the Rue Scribe. They were most interesting and in-
structive. The present writer often attended them in the last years of the
Empire to hear Deschanel the elder, J. J. Weiss, Eugene Pelletan, Labou-
laye, Legouve*, St. Marc-Girardin, Henri Martin, Sarcey, Wolowski, and
others.

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 71

my neck in crossing It ; but no matter, as it only remains
for me to march onward I will march."

Besides the tales already enumerated, Zola's first volume,
which opened with a glowing dedication to Ninon, the ideal
love of his youth, — some passages being inspired, however,
by the riper knowledge that had come to him from the more
material love of Bohemian days, — included " Les Aventures
du Grand Sidoine et du Petit M^ddric," an entertaining fable
of a giant and his tiny brother. Zola had sent his manu-
script to M. Hetzel, then associated in business with M.
Albert Lacroix, a scholarly man of letters who, a little later,
founded the well-known Librairie Internationale and pub-
lished several of the works of Victor Hugo: in return for
which the great poet, whose own books were profitable,
virtually compelled M. Lacroix to issue the works of his
sons and his hangers-on, with the result that heavy losses
frequently occurred.

Hetzel and Lacroix agreed to publish Zola's tales (under
the collective title . of " Contes k Ninon ") without exacting
anything for the cost of production; but the author was
to receive no immediate payment He, all eagerness to
see his work in book-form, subscribed to every condition
that was enunciated, and then ran home to tell his mother
the good news. The volume was issued on October 24,
1864,1 which became a red letter day in Zola's life. Writing
to Valabrfegue in the following January, he told him that
more than half of the first edition (probably one of fifteen
hundred copies) was then sold; and as the book at least
made him known, procured him journalistic and literary

1 No date appears on the title of the first edition (18mo, 3 francs), which
bears the imprints of Hetzel and Lacroix, and Poupart-Davyl & Co., Printers.

72 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

wort, lie felt greatly inspirited, though lie still remained
at Hachette's, intending, lie said, to keep Ms post for sev-
eral years if possible, in order to increase "the circle of
his relations." Meantime, as it was necessary he should
"make haste, and rhyming might delay him," he left the
Muse for ulterior wooing, — that is, if she should not
then have grown angry, or have eloped with some more naif
and tender lover than himself. Briefly, as he was writing
prose to his personal advantage, he intended to persevere

with it

It may he said of Zola's first volume that it was gracefully,
prettily written ; that more than one of the tales contained
in it was a poem in prose. Brimful of the author's early
life in Provence, his youthful fancies and aspirations, those
" Contes k Ninon " gave no warning of what was to follow
from his pen. And yet at the very time of writing most
of them he was being weaned from romance and fable and
idyl Not only had he taken considerable interest in
About's * Madelon" but he had been studying Balzac, and
particularly Flaubert's « Madame Bovary," the perusal of
which had quite stirred him. A man had come, axe in
hand, into the huge and often tangled forest which Balzac
had left behind him ; and the formula of the modem novel
now appeared in a blaze of light When " Madame Bovary "
was issued in 1860, the average Parisian, the average literary-
man even, regarded it merely as a snccls de scandale. Many
of those who praised the book failed to understand its real
import; and when Flaubert was satirised in the popular
theatrical rfoue, "Qh6l les petite Agneaux," half Paris, by
way of deriding him, hummed the trivial lines sung by the
actress who impersonated "Madame Bovary":

a
<u

ffi

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 73

Qu'importe ! c'est bfficlel,
On vit quatre e*diteurs me suivre :
Oui, Paul, MatMeu, Pierre, et Michel
Voulurent imprimer mon livre I . . ,
Craignant mes excentricite*s
Mathieu ne vit pas mon me'rite ;
Paul ne vit pas mes quality's,
Pierre ne vit pas mes beaute*s,

Mais Michel les vit

Mais Michel les vit x
Tout de suite ! "

Zola, however, did not laugh or jeer at " Madame Bovary* " ;
he felt that a literary evolution might be at hand, as is
shown by his subsequent correspondence with Valabr&gua
The struggle which was to last all his life, one between his
reason and his imagination, was beginning, if indeed it had
not begun previously ; for the oscillation which one observes
in his writings between romanticism and realism — or
naturalism as the latter became in its advanced stage —
would indeed seem to be only a continuation of what had
happened in his school days, when, in spite of proficiency
in literary subjects, he had elected to follow a scientific
course of study, in the midst of which, however, his literary
bent had still and ever asserted itself. Novalis has said :
" Every person who consists of more than one person is a
person of the second power — or a genius," If that be true,
then Zola was certainly a genius; for there were always
two men in him. And, in any case, those who desire to
understand him aright should never lose sight of the duality
of his nature.

But at the stage of his career which one has now reached,

1 A pun on the name of the publisher, Michel Le*vy. It must he admitted
that while the authors of " One ! les petits Agneaux " scoffed at Flaubert, they
gave him a splendid advertisement.

74 •ftMTLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the realist, the naturalist, had not fully arisen. We find
him appearing in Zola's next book, "La Confession de
Claude,'* and in sundry newspaper articles, which, like the
'* Confession," were issued in 1865. After working ten hours
a day at Hachette's, the young man, on returning to his
home — which in the year mentioned was first at 142,
Boulevard Montparnasse, near a shooting gallery which
prevented him from working, and a little later at 10, Rue de
Vaugirard, where he had a balcony overlooking the Luxem-
bourg gardens — at once turned to the " Confession/' or else
to the press-work he had secured. Every week he wrote an
article of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty lines
for the " Petit Journal," and often another, running from five
to six hundred lines for the " Salut Public," then the chief
organ of the Lyons press. The former newspaper paid Mm
twenty francs for each article ; the latter, from fifty to sixty
francs. Thus he now made an average of two hundred
francs a month by his pen.1 It was also at this period that
he contributed a few short tales, notably "La Vierge au
Cirage," to that somewhat demi-mondain periodical "La
Vie Parisienne," and that he wrote a one-act comedy, " La
Laide," which he sent to the Oddon Theatre, whose manager
declined to stage it.

But the articles in the " Salut Public " attracted attention,
and Zola afterwards reprinted some of them in a volume
called " Mes Haines." The germ of the Zola of later times
will be found in several of those early papers. The one
on Taine is perhaps the best ; and, when one remembers that
it was written by a young man in his twenty-fifth year, the
real understanding and critical insight which it discloses

1 Zola to Valafcr&gue, February 6, 1865.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 75

appear all the more creditable. Another notable article was
a bold, disdainful review of Napoleon Ill's "Histoire de
Jules Ctesar," containing, in the usual veiled language of the
times, the first indication that Zola held Republican opin-
ions. Again, two articles on " Le Supplice d'une Femme "
and the Dumas-Girardin scandal connected with that trag-
edy are in their way interesting, while another on the
" Germinie Lacerteux " of Edmond and Jules de Goncourt is
particularly noteworthy as showing the progress of Zola's
evolution towards naturalism in literature.

This article was favourable to the book, whose authors it
pleased; and some communications having been exchanged,
the young journalist secured a seat for that famous first
performance of " Henriette Marshal," which ranks as one
of the mos.t uproarious nights in the history of the Com^die
Fran§aise. [The audience, Zola tells us,1 began to hiss
before the curtain rose ; the storm burst forth at the first
words spoken by the actors. The opening scene, laid at
the opera-house on the night of a masked ball, scandalised
the old habitues of the Com^die. Modern masqueraders and
slang in the home of Racine and Corneille ! What sacri-
lege ! But the greatest opposition to the piece came from
the young Republicans of the time, who were not influenced
by the merits or faults of the play, but simply by the fact
that its performance at the Comddie was due to the influ-
ence of the Emperor's cousin, the Princess Mathilde.

Yet whatever might be the public dislike of that mem-
ber of the reigning house, to whom a horrid nickname
was currently given, whatever the notoriety of her liaison
with the Count de Nieuwerkerke, the " Superintendent of

1 " Les Romanciers Naturalistes," Paria, 1881, p. 238.

76 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Fine Arts," it was somewhat hard for the Goncourts that
their play should be rendered responsible for her lapses.
But good came out of evil, as the saying goes ; if " Henriette
Marshal" was hissed off the stage, the fracas made the
Goncourts famous. Two nights of uproar contributed more
to popularise their name and to win readers for their works
than years of zealous toil. They had long been esteemed in
literary circles, but hitherto they had remained unknown to
the great public. Their novels, like their historical works,
had secured no large sales, whereas now all was altered, and
the change, and the circumstances which wrought it, pro-
duced a deep impression on Emile Zola, confirmed him in
the view which he had already begun to entertain, that fame
in the modern literary world depended largely on a resound-
ing coup-de-pistolet.

He was fairly well pleased with the result of his volume
of " Contes," but prior to the " Henriette Marshal " scandal l
he had already declared that he would greatly have preferred
a severe " slating " to some of the milk-and-water praise of
his reviewers. As he wrote to Valabr&gue, however, he
lived in the hope that his next book, "La Confession de
Claude," would almost " decide his reputation." It was pub-
lished by Lacroix, on November 25, 1865,2 at the Librairie
Internationale, which he had now established in conjunction
with a Flemish confrere, Verboeckhoven ; and this time the
arrangement with Zola was that the latter should receive a

1 The first performance took place on December 5, 1865,

2 Though " 1866 " appears on the title-page, the above is the exact date of
publication and registration at the Ministry of the Interior. Alexis is there-
fore in error when he says the book appeared in October. The question of
date has some importance in connection with Zola's departure from Hachette's
and the cause thereof.

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 77

royalty of ten per cent, or thirty centimes,1 for every
copy sold. As, however, only fifteen hundred copies were
printed, the sale of the entire edition represented less than
twenty pounds2 for the author; and it so happened that
the book was not reissued till 1880.

From this it might be inferred that it proved an absolute
failure; but such was hardly the case. Certainly it was not
a perfect book. Zola himself afterwards wrote that the
observer occasionally vanished from its pages, allowing the
poet to appear, a poet who had drunk too much milk and
eaten too much sugar. "It was not," said he, "a virile
work ; it was the cry of a weeping, rebellious child" But
with all its faults it bore the impress of sincerity ; Daudet's
" Sapho," though far superior as literature, leaves one cold
when one turns to it after perusing Zola's feverish pages.
If the public did not rush to buy the "Confession," the
critics, at all events, paid it considerable attention, and
several assailed it unmercifully. For instance, Barbey
d'Aurdvilly, writing in the " Nain Jaune," declared that its
" hero " was a toad, and that the author had simply spun
out, over three hundred and twenty pages, what Cambronne,
who commanded the Old G-uard at Waterloo, had expressed
in a single word. But what particularly roused Zola's ire
was that "le Catholique hyst&rique," as he subsequently
nicknamed Barbey d'Aur^villy, maliciously referred to the
"Confession" as "Hachette's little book," whereas that firm
had nothing to do with it. Zola therefore addressed a letter
of protest to the " Nain Jaune." 8

i About Sd. ; or six cents (American).
8 Say $100.

8 K. H. Sherard's "JSinile Zola: A Biographical and Critical Study."
London, 1895, pp. 52, 53.

78 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOEMER

But he had already decided to sever Ms connection with
his employers. Since the death of M. Louis Hachette in
the summer of 1864, the young man's position in the firm
had been growing difficult. His superiors looked askance at
his literary efforts, as if they thought that he wrote stories
and articles in the time for which they paid him. More-
over, as they themselves did not deal in revolutionary litera-
ture, they did not care to have one of their clerks associated
with such work. "La Confession de Claude'* seemed to
them too outspoken ; and a few days after its publication,
that is, at the end of November, 1865, one of the partners
said to Zola : " You earn two hundred francs a month here.
It is ridiculous ! You have plenty of talent, and would do
better to take up literature altogether. You would find
glory and profit in it."1

Zola took the hint (conveyed pleasantly enough) and gave
notice to leave at the end of the following January. And
he was the better pleased at having adopted that course, and
having averted, perhaps, a direct dismissal, as a few weeks
after the appearance of "La Confession de Claude" the
Procureur Imperial, otherwise the public prosecutor, influ-
enced by certain reviews of the book, caused some inquiries
to be made at Hachette's with respect to its author. No
prosecution ensued, and " Madame Bovary " having escaped
scot free, it is extremely doubtful if one would have suc-
ceeded even in those days of judicial subserviency to the
behests of the authorities, particularly as, whatever might
be the subject-matter of the "Confession," it was instinct
throughout with loathing and censure of the incidents it
narrated. In any case, Zola, on writing to Valabrkgue early

1 demand Xau's '« fimile Zola." 12mo, 68 pages, Paris, 1880.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 79

in January, 1866, with thoughts, perhaps, of "Henrietta
Marshal " and the Goncourts in his mind, was by no means
alarmed or cast down. If, said he, the "Confession" had
damaged him in the opinion of respectable folk, it had also
made him known ; he was feared and insulted, classed among
the writers whose works were read with horror. For his
part, he did not mean to pander to the likes or the dislikes
of the crowd ; he intended to force the public to caress or
insult him. Doubtless, indifference would be loftier, more
dignified; but he belonged to an impatient age, and if he
and his fellows did not trample the others under foot, the
others would certainly pass over them, and, personally, he
did not f' ~ ^ire to be crushed by fools.

And now, then, having published two volumes, the first
fairly well received, the second virulently attacked, he
quitted Hachette's, to give himself up entirely to journal-
ism and literature.

IN THE FURNACE OF PAEIS
1866-1868

Henri de Villemessant, the Bamum of the Parisiaii press — His papers,
" L']:5ve*nement " and "Le Figaro" — The first interviews in French
journalism — Millaud and Timothee Trimm — Girardin's fresh idea every-
day — Zola inaugurates " Literary Gossip " — A glance at French litera-
ture in. 1866 — Zola, Littre*, and Michelet — Zola's first impression of
Alphonse Daudet — The Librairie Fouvelle and the Librairie Interna-
tionale — Zola and the Open-Air School of Art — Leopold Tabar and
** L'GSuvre ** — Zola's articles on the Salon of 1866 — The great sensa-
tion in the art- world — A holiday at Bennecourt — "Le Vceu d'une
Morte " — " Marbres et Piatres " — " La Madeleine " —• A " definition of
the novel " — Hard times — Zola in love — More writings on art —
" Les Mysteres de Marseille " — " Therese Raquin " — Arsene Houssaye
and his moral tag — Ulbaah and "putrid literature" — Ste.-Beuve's
criticism and Zola's reply — **Les Mysteres de Marseille" as a play —
** La Honte," otherwise *' Madeleine Ferat " — First idea of the Bougon
Macquarts.

of the best-known Parisians of those days was Henri
de Villemessant, a man typical of the period, with some-
thing of Barnum and Balzac's " Mercadet " in his composi-
tion. He was the son of one of the first Napoleon's dashing
plebeian colonels by a young woman of noble birth, whose
name he had to take and retain, after engaging in an unsuc-
cessful lawsuit to prove the legitimacy of his birth and
thereby secure a right to the name of his father. Coming to
Paris as a young man, in the early days of Louis Philippe's
reign, Villemessant conceived the idea that a fortune might
be made by running a fashions journal on new lines ; and,
under the patronage of La Taglioni, the famous ballet dancer,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEE 81

Be founded one called " La Sylphide," in which dressmakers
and their creations, hairdressers and their restorers, corsets
and cosmetics, in fact " beautifiers " of every description,
were puffed in a skilful and amusing manner. "La Syl-
phide " did not make Villemessant a millionaire, but the
money and the experience he acquired in conducting it
launched him into a very successful career. In the days of
Charles X. there had been a newspaper called " Le Figaro,"
which had died as many newspapers die. The title having
lapsed, anybody could appropriate it, and Villemessant, find-
ing it to his liking, did so. He started, then, a weekly
journal called "Le Figaro," which at first was devoted
largely to things theatrical, and in particular to the charms,
the wit, and the merits of actresses, not forgetting those of
the demi-monde.

The contents of "Le Figaro," in its early period, were
often scurrilous ; unpleasant stories were current respecting
the means by which paragraphs of green-room gossip were
inserted or suppressed ; but Villemessant, paying no heed,
went his way, prosperous and rejoicing. In course of time,
like many another adventurer, he assumed some semblance
of respectability, and imparted a literary touch to his journal.
But, as its questionable days were still too recent for many
folk to take to it, he decided to start, or rather revive for a
time, another derelict newspaper, " L'Ev^nement," which he
made a non-political morning daily.

Villemessant had a remarkable scent for actualite and
talent Almost every French writer popular from 1864
onward, contributed for a time to " L'fi v6nement " or to "Le
Figaro," which eventually took the other journal's place.
Villemessant liked to capture his contributors young, when

82 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

they were beginning to show their mettle, run them for a
year or two, then toss them aside in order to make room for
other promising debutants. Prom special circumstances a
few men remained with him till the last, but the number of
those whose connection with Villemessant's journals proved
as brief as brilliant, was extraordinary* It may be said of
him that if he did not originate he at least accentuated the
personal note in French newspaper writing ; and, in conjunc-
tion with his collaborateur, Adrien Marx, he was certainly
the very first to introduce the "interview" into European
journalism.1 Later he became the sponsor of Henri Eoche-
fort, who did so much to demolish the Second Empire.

It was into the hands of Villemessant that Zola fell on
quitting Hachette's. He, Zola, had already had some deal-
ings with another singular and prominent newspaper pro-
moter, Millaud, the first to produce a popular halfpenny
daily in Paris, "Le Petit Journal," in whose columns L£o
Lesp&s, a Parisian hairdresser, achieved journalistic celebrity
as " Timoth^e Trimm." There was as much of a Barnum in
Millaud as there was in Villemessant, but while the former
was a thorough Hebrew Jew, the latter was a Christian one,
who, whenever it suited his purpose, could be a liberal pay-
master. And, besides, his manners were pleasant, even
jovial; his greatest vice being an extreme partiality for the
pleasures of the table, in which respect Ms contemporaries
contrasted him with Dr. V4ron, another famous newspaper
man of those times, saying, " V&ron is a gourmet, and Ville-
messant a glutton."

1 This was in the early sixties. Marx, who "interviewed" the boyish
Prince Imperial, Baron James de Rothschild, M. de Lesseps, and many others,
collected Ms articles in a volume entitled, " Indiscretions Parisiennes."

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 83

Emile de Girardin, the father of the modern French press,
who at the period one has now reached, 1866, was conduct-
ing a paper called " La Libertd," which had little influence
in Paris, had made himself responsible, in Louis Philippe's
time, for a fresh idea every day — not, it must he said, alto-
gether successfully, for many of the ideas which he enun-
ciated were mere paradoxes. Villemessant, who owed much
to Girardin, was an equally great believer in novelty ; but
being less versatile, and suffering, moreover, from a laborious
digestion, which consumed much of his time, he did not
often have ideas of his own. So he purchased those of
others. He had taken, a wife while he was yet in his teens,
and had two daughters, one married to his musical critic,
Jouvin, the other to a M. Bourdin, who attended to some of
his business matters, such as advertising and puffery. Bour-
din called upon the Paris publishers, and at Hachette's
offices he met Zola. The latter, having decided to quit the
firm, told Bourdin of an idea he had formed ; it was com-
municated to Villemessant, who at once offered to give Zola
a trial.

The matter was very simple, and will even appear trivial
to present-day English and American journalists. Tinder
the title of " Books of To-day and To-morrow," Zola proposed
to contribute a variety of literary gossip to "L'fiv&e-
ment," after the style of the theatrical gossip, already
printed by that and other newspapers. Though publishers1
puffs appeared here and there, nobody had previously
thought of doing for books and writers what many were
already doing for plays, operas, actors, and especially
actresses. The innovation took Villemessant's fancy ; and
Zola, quitting Hachette's on January 31, 1866, published his

84 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

first gossip in " L*fi v&aement " two days later. In one
important respect Ms articles differed from the theatrical
gossip of the time. Much of the latter was paid for by
managers or performers; whereas Zola neither sought nor
accepted "bribes from authors or publishers, but looked to
" L'Ev&iement * for his entire remuneration. As mentioned
previously, he had been engaged on trial, and thus no actual
scale of payment had been arranged. When at the end of a
month he called upon the cashier at " L'E v&iement " office
he was both amazed and delighted to receive five hundred
francs.1

Villemessant, for his part, was well pleased with the con-
tributions. Though the time was not one of exceptional
literary brilliancy, it had its interesting features, and the
activity in the book-world was the greater as the first period
of the Second Empire, that of personal rule, had not yet
quite ended; the second period, that of the so-called
"Empire liberal," dating only from the ensuing year, 1867.
The Trench still possessed few liberties, the Government
kept a strong curb on the political newspapers that were
tolerated, and thus literature at least had a chance of at-
tracting that wide attention of which politics so often
despoil it. But it was also a degenerate time, the time of
Clodoche at the opera-balls, of Offenbach's "Orph^e" and
" La Belle Hdl&ne." Only a few months previously (Novem-
ber, 1865), Victorien Sardou had produced his "Famille
Benoiton," one of the very best of his many theatrical
efforts, a stinging but truthful satire of some of the manners
of the day, such as they had become in the atmosphere of
the imperial rigimz.

1 Alexis, 1. c.t p. 67.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 85

To the conditions of the time may be largely attributed
certain features of its journalism, and of at least one branch
of its literature, fiction. Again and again the most promi-
nent articles in the majority of the Paris newspapers (only
five or six of which were serious political organs) dealt with
such women as Cora Pearl, Giulia Barucci, Anna Deslions,
and Esther Guimond ; such men as Worth, the dressmaker,
Markowski, the dancing master, Gramont-Caderousse, the
spendthrift, and Mangin, the charlatan. The average boule-
vardian novel beautified vice, set it amid all the glamour of
romance. The adulterous woman was an angel, the courte-
san quite a delightful creature, her trade a mere pecJiS
mignm. The lovers, the seducers, were always handsome,
high-minded, exceptionally virile, irresistible ; while the de-
ceived husbands were of every kind, — odious, tragic, pathetic,
dffionnair, or simply ridiculous. And every " intrigue " was
steeped in an odour of musk and suffused with a cloud of
poudre-de-riz.

At the same time some of the great writers of the July
Monarchy were still living. But if Hugo, the Olympian
veteran, showed little sign of decay, either with his " Chan-
sons des Eues et des Bois," or his " Travailleurs de la Mer,"
Dumas the elder was now at his last stage, and George
Sand, bound by an agreement to the "R£vue des Deux
Mondes," was deluging its readers with the mere milk and
water of " Laura " and similar productions, though she
treated others — as a result, perhaps, of the vitiated taste of
the hour — to such strong and unsavoury meat as " Elle et
Lui," to which Paul de Musset retorted with his pungent
relev£, " Lui et Elle." The recluse of Nohant was to produce
good work yet, but that she herself should publicly flaunt

86 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

tlie least excusable of her many amours was sad and
repulsive*

Meantime other great workers, as diligent as she, were
steadily pursuing their lifework. Iittr£, whom Zola knew
slightly, for Hachettes were his publishers, and on whom he
called in his modest second-floor rooms in the Rue d'Assas,
was continuing his great dictionary of the Trench language,1
and making his first attempt to enter the Academy, to be
foiled, however, by the frantic bigotry of Bishop Dupanloup,
whereas those minor lights, Camille Doucet and Provost-
Paradol, secured without difficulty the honours of election.
Then Littr^'s neighbour, Michelet, — another of Hachette's
authors — whose quiet $oir£es Zola, like other young literary
men, occasionally attended, was completing his History of
Franca And there was much activity among historical
writers generally, and, in particular, a large output of books
throwing light on phases and personages of the great
Revolution.

At that period also a little band of so-called Parnassian
poets, inspired, some by Leconte de Lisle, and others by
Baudelaire, but, for the most part, gifted with little breadth
of thought, was imparting to French verse an extreme lit-
erary polish, at times attaining real beauty of expression,
and at others lapsing into a yrecwsitS, which neither sonority
of sound nor wealth of imagery could save from being ridicu-
lous. Meanwhile, in dramatic literature, Ponsard was pro-
ducing his version of " Le Lion Amoureux," and Augier his
"Contagion," the latter's success being due, however, more
to political reasons than to any intrinsic merit.2 Then, in

1 The first volume had appeared in 1863.

a Napoleon III. and Ms wife attended the first performance at the Ode"on

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 87

fiction, if Edmond About seemed to have run to seed prema-
ti|.rely with his interminable novel, "La Vieille Roche,"
Octave Feuillet was writing his best book, "Monsieur de
Camors." And if the historical novel, as Dumas had con-
ceived it, had declined to mere trash, those well-known
literary partners, Erckmann-Chatrian, by transforming it
and dealing exclusively with the period of the Revolution
and the First Empire, were achieving repeated successes, their
popularity being the greater among the Parisians on account
of the Eepublican spirit of their writings. Then the foibles
of the time were vividly illustrated by Taine's amusing
" Graindorge," and Droz's " Monsieur, Madame, et B4b<£," the
last as strange a medley of immorality, wit, and true and
honest feeling as ever issued from the press. But there was
no redeeming feature in the nonsensical stories of semi-
courtesans to which the brilliant Arsfene Houssaye had
declined ; no shade of literary merit in the wild, unending
romances with which Ponson du Terrail harrowed the feel-
ings of every Parisian doorkeeper and apprentice. Perhaps
the best serial writer of the time was Emile Gaboriau, for
though his style was devoid of any literary quality, he was
ingenious and plausible, and by the exercise of these gifts
raised the detective novel of commerce from the depths in
which he found it.

But a delightful story-teller was coming to the front
in the person of young Alphonse Daudet, who, since his
arrival in Paris some nine years previously, had made his
way siifficiently well to secure the performance of a one-act

(March, 1866), and when Got, one of the performers, had occasion to exclaim,
" England, the land of liberty ! " nearly the entire audience, composed of the
intellectual leaders of Paris, rose and applauded tumultuously, in spite of
the Emperor's presence. He was deeply impressed "by this demonstration.

88 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

comedy, * L'CEiUet bknc," at the Com&iie Fran§aise, and of
another, " La Derni&re Hole," at the Od^on. He had also
contributed to "Le Petit Moniteur," — a one-sou adjunct of
the official journal — in whose columns he signed either
'* Baptiste " or " Jehan de I'lsle." Further, he had begun his
familiar " Tartarin " under the title of " Le Don Quichotte
proven^al " ; and he gave his charming " Lettres de mon
Moulin" to " L'lllvdnement," at the very time when Zola
was providing that journal with literary gossip. The young
men met occasionally at the offices as well as at Villemes^
sant's country house at Seine-Port, and Zola was greatly
struck by Daudet's handsomeness, — " his abundant mane
of hair, his silky, pointed beard, his large eyes, slender nose,
and amorous mouth, the whole illumined by a ray of light,
instinct with a soft voluptuousness, in such wise that his
face beamed with a smile at once witty and sensual. Some-
thing of the French gamin and something of the woman of
the East, were blended in him." l

But Daudet and Zola, afterwards such good friends, did
not become intimate at this time. They merely elbowed
one another on a few chance occasions, then followed the
different roads they had chosen, roads which seemed likely
to part them for ever, but which ended by bringing them as
near one to the other as their natures allowed.

In those days one of the institutions of literary and
boulevardian Paris was the Librairie Nouvelle, which had
been founded in 1853 or 1854, at the corner of the Boule-
vard des Italiens and the Eue de Grammont, by a M.
Bourdilliat, who subsequently sold the enterprise to Michel
L£vy, the well-known publisher. This Librairie Nouvelle

i Zola's " Les Romanciers Naturalises," Paris, Charpentier, 1881 et &?#.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 89

was both a publishing and a book-selling centre, and was
much patronised by literary men, who made it a kind of
lounge, meeting there of an afternoon, towards the absinthe
hour, and again at night when the theatres closed. You
might meet there such men as the two Dumas, the Gon-
courts, Paul de Musset, Nestor Roqueplan, Gautier, About,
Lambert-Thiboust, Jules Noriac, a brilliant chroniqueur,
who never went to bed till sunrise, Xavier Aubryet, who
combined literature with business, penning prose as full of
sparkle as the champagne he sold, and Dr. Cerise, a fashion-
able and eccentric medical man, who shrewdly " physicked "
his lady patients with amusing books. Chatrian also came
to the Librairie Nouvelle, with Offenbach, Cl&inger, Auber,
Hal^vy, and Meilhac ; and among all these one might occa-
sionally espy amiable diplomatists like the Chevalier Nigra
and the Prince de Metternich, the husband of " the wittiest
woman of the age."

Now, when M. Albert Lacroix, the publisher of Zola's
" Contes k Ninon " and " Confession de Claude," established
the Librairie Internationale, in a very similar position, that
is at the corner of the Boulevard Montmartre and the Rue
Vivienne, he wished to make it a literary centre of the same
description as the Librairie Nouvelle. And he largely suc-
ceeded in his endeavour, attracting many patrons of the
older establishment, and drawing numerous others around
him. Indeed, the Librairie Internationale became almost a
revolutionary centre ; for besides issuing many translations
of foreign works, such as those of Grote, Buckle, Dean
Merivale, Bancroft, Motley, Prescott, Gervinus, Duncker,
and Herder, it published many of the writings of Hugo and
Michelet, Eugene Pelletan and Edgar Quinet, Lamartine

90 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEB

and Laveleye, Jules Simon, Ernest Hamel, and Proudlion,
— briefly of men whose principles were opposed to those
of the Second Empire.1 Occasionally M. Lacroix was led
into hot water by his democratic tendencies ; as, for in-
stance, when he incurred fine and imprisonment for issuing
Proudhon's annotated edition of the Gospels, whereupon he
became so alarmed that for some time he would not con-
tinue the publication of Hamel's whitewashing of Bobes-
pierre, of which he had already issued the first volume.
In fiction he was often venturesome ; for he not only pro-
duced " Manette Salomon " and " Madame G-ervaisais " for
the Goncourts, but he issued " Le Maudit " and other no-
torious volumes by the Abb£ * * *, — really the Abb6
Michon, — an author whom Zola did not hesitate to " slate "
in a provincial newspaper, though Lacroix was his own pub-
lisher. "Disgust," he wrote, " rises to the lips when one
reads these novels 2 floundering through filth, as vulgar in
form as they are in thought, and pandering to the gross
appetites of the multitude. One must assume that all this
vileness and vulgarity is intentional on the author's part :
he has written for a certain public and has served it the
spicy and evil-smelling ragouts which he knows will please

it.».

On the other hand, calling now and again at the Librairie

1 The present writer can speak of these matters from personal knowledge ;
he well knew M. Bourdilliat, the founder of the Librairie Nouvelle, and
afterwards connected for many years with " Le Monde Illustre," which
Frank Vizetelly helped to establish, and of which he was the first editor.
As for the Librairie Internationale, it became the commercial agency of the
" Illustrated London News," which Henry Vizetelly (the writer's father) repre-
sented in Paris for several years.

2 "Le Maudit" was followed by "La R&igieuse," "Le Je"suite," "Le
Moine," etc,, all of these books having very large sales in Paris,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 91

Internationale, Zola there acquired no little information
which, became useful for his contributions to "L'fiv&ie-
inent," besides making the acquaintance of various literary
men. But his old friends remained his favourite ones, and
Cezanne, the painter, ranked foremost among them. He,
C&anne, had become a fervent partisan of the new school of
art, the school which Zola called that of the Open Air, and
which led to Impressionism. Zola himself had strong artis-
tic leanings and sympathies ; he spent hours in the studio
of his friend, who introduced him to several other young
painters, first Guillemet, then Edouard B£liard, Pissarro,
Claude Monet, Degas, Renoir, Fantin-Latour, — as well as
Theodore Duret, art critic and subsequently historian —
with all whom he often discussed art at the famous Caf6
G-uerbois at Batignolles. A little later, Guillemet and
Duranty the novelist,1 with whom Zola had kept up an
intercourse since leaving Hachette's, introduced him to
jEdouard Manet, the recognised leader of the new school ;
and in all likelihood Zola, about the same time, came across
the unlucky Leopold Tabar, a born colourist, whom Delacroix
had favoured and helped.

Tabar produced one striking and almost perfect painting,
a " Saint Sebastian," but the rest of his life was consumed in
ineffectual efforts. His sketches were admirable, but he
could never finish a picture, and his failures were accentu-
ated by his constant ambition to produce something huge,
something colossal. Yet for years he was regarded as a
coming great man. He had failed with his last picture, no
doubt, but his next would be a masterpiece. He died at
last in misery. And so much of his story corresponds with
1 See mte, p. 66.

92 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

that of Zola's novel, " I/GEuvre," that it seems certain the
author must have met the unfortunate painter, and have
blended his life with that of C&anne and others when
preparing his study on the art-world of Paris.1

It was undoubtedly because Zola found himself thrown
so much among the young painters of the new school that
he asked Villemessant to let him write some critical arti-
cles on the Salon of 1866, a request which the editor of
" L'Evenement " seems to have granted readily enough. It
is a curious circumstance that scores of prominent French
authors, including famous poets, historians, novelists, and
playwrights, have written on one or another Salon at some
period of their careers. It used to be said in Paris, half in
jest, half in earnest, that nobody could aspire to literary
fame of any kind without having criticised at least one of
the annual fine-art shows in the Champs Elys^es. In any
case the admission of t( non-professionals/* so to say, among
the critics, has been beneficial with respect both to the
quality of art and the diffusion of artistic perception in
France. It has more than once led painting out of the
beaten track, checked the pontiffs of narrow formulas, en-
couraged the young, helped on the new schools. At times
the professional art critic has found his harsh dogmas and
slavish traditions shattered by the common sense of his
non-professional rival In England it happens far too often
that the same men write on art in the same jargon and in
the same newspapers and periodicals for years and years.
In the long run, they fail to interest their readers : they

1 The above passage corrects and supplements the particulars given by the
writer in the preface to the English translation of "L'GEuvre," edited "by
him. " His Masterpiece," by E. Zola, London, Chatto and Windus, 1902.

IMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 93

are for ever repeating the same things. They cannot ap-
preciate any novelty: their vision has become too preju-
diced. And they exercise no healthy, educating, vivifying
influence. It is no wonder, then, that the diffusion of artis-
tic culture in England should proceed very slowly.

Of course, even in France, the partisans of old and recog-
nised schools do not immediately welcome a new one. For
the most part they defend their acquired position with all
the vigour they possess. And the battle may go on for some
years before a new formula triumphs, soon to find, perhaps, yet
another one preparing to challenge its hard-earned victory.
When Zola, whose eyes treasured memories of the bright
sunlight of Provence, who could recall the limpid atmos-
phere of the hillsides that girdled Aix, entered the lists to
do battle for the new realists of that time he encountered a
terrific opposition. It had been arranged with Villemessant
that he should write from sixteen to eighteen articles, pass-
ing the entire Salon in review ; but he penned and pub-
lished seven only — the first two, which dealt with the
exhibition jury and its system of admitting and excluding
pictures, being written prior to May 1, the opening day.
These articles, which accused the jury of manifest injustice
in excluding Edouard Manet, and almost every artist who
shared his tendencies, created quite an uproar in the Pari-
sian art- world, which increased when a third article denounced
the absolute mediocrity of some eighteen hundred and ninety
of the two thousand pictures which had been " hung." A
fourth article, in vindication of Manet and his methods,
and a fifth praising Claude Monet's " Camille," and attack-
ing Vollon, Ribot, Bonvin, and Roybet as spurious realists,
brought matters to a climax. Villemessant and Zola him-

94 iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

self were assailed with letters of complaint, some hundreds
of readers (inspired for the most part by the artistic enemies
of the * Open-Air " school) demanding the critic's immediate
dismissal or withdrawal. Zola's articles, it may be said,
were signed with the mm de plume of " Claude/' — in mem-
ory, no doubt, of " Claude's Confession/* and in anticipation
of the « Claude Lantier " of " L'GEuvre," — nevertheless, his
identity having been divulged, he was freely abused by the
critics of rival newspapers, and was even threatened with
a duel.

At that time, it should be mentioned, Edouard Manet,
whose high talent needs no praise nowadays, was generally
regarded as a mystifier, an impudent scamp who delighted
to play jokes with the public, and it followed that this man
Zola, who defended him, must be either another mystifier
or else a mere ignorant jackass. Villemessant, however,
less alarmed than amused by the storm which had been
raised, was unwilling to dismiss him. In lieu thereof he de-
cided to run a second series of articles on the Salon, one of
the orthodox type, by Theodore Pelloquet, which it was
thought would counterbalance the revolutionary utterances
emanating from Zola. But this decision, although almost
worthy of Solomon, did not satisfy the readers of " L'Ev6ne-
ment." They would not have Zola as art critic at any price,
and so he brought his campaign to an end after two more
strongly written articles. In the first, truthfully enough,
and in a regretful spirit, he pointed out the decline of
Courbet, Millet, and particularly Theodore Bousseau, whose
pictures that year were of an inferior quality, while, in the
second, after attacking Fromentin for painting Oriental
scenes with plenty of colour, but with an absolute lack of

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOKMER 95

light, he turned the now-forgotten Nazon's sunsets into
ridicule, and dismissed Gdrome and Dubuffe with a few
stinging words* On the other hand, he praised Daubigny,
Pissarro (then a newcomer among the realists), and Corot,
observing of the last, however, that he would like his work
far better if he would only slaughter the nymphs with
which he peopled his woods, and set real peasants in their
places. And he wound up as follows, in words which, ap-
plied to much of his after-life, were almost prophetic: —

"In these articles I have defended M, Manet as, throughout
my life, I shall always defend every frank personality that may
be assailed. I shall always be on the side of the vanquished.
There is always a contest between men of unconquerable tempera-
ments and the herd. I am on the side of the temperaments,
and I attack the herd. Thus my case is judged, and I am
condemned. I have been guilty of such enormity as to fail to
admire M. Dubuffe, after admiring Courbet — the enormity of
complying with inexorable logic. Such has been my guilt and
simplicity that I have been unable to swallow without disgust the
fadeurs of the period, and have demanded power and originality
in artistic work. I have blasphemed in declaring that the history
of art proves that only temperaments dominate the ages, and
that the paintings we treasure are those which have been lived
and felt. I have committed such horrible sacrilege as to speak
with scant respect of the petty reputations of the day and to
predict their approaching demise, their passage into eternal
nothingness. I have behaved as a heretic in demolishing the
paltry religions of coteries and firmly setting forth the great reli-
gion of art, that which says to every painter : * Open your eyes,
behold nature. Open your heart, behold life.' I have also dis-
played crass ignorance because I have not shared the opinions of
the patented critics, and have neglected to speak of the foreshort-
ening of a torso, the modelling of a belly, draughtsmanship and
colour, schools and precepts. I have behaved, too, like a ruffian
in marching straight towards my goal without thinking of the

96 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

poor devils whom I might crash on the way. I sought Truth
and I acted so badly as to hurt people while trying to reach it.
In a word, I have shown cruelty, foolishness, and ignorance, I
have been guilty of sacrilege and heresy, because, weary of false-
hood and mediocrity, I looked for men in a crowd of eunuchs.
And that is why I am condemned."

Such writing as this was bound to ruffle many dovecotes.
There had previously been various efforts on behalf of the
new school of painting, the complaints of injustice having
led one year to the granting of a Salon des Bdfus&s, but
never had any writer hit out so vigorously, with such dis-
regard for the pretentious vanity of the artistic demigods of
the hour. If, however, Zola was banished from " L'Ev&e-
ment " as an art critic, he was not silenced, for he repub-
lished his articles in pamphlet form,1 with a dedicatory
preface addressed to Paul C&anne, in which he said: "I
have faith in the views I profess ; I know that in a few
years everybody will hold me to be right. So I have no
fear that they may be cast in my face hereafter." In this
again he was fairly accurate : at least several of the views
then held to be not merely revolutionary but ridiculous
have become commonplaces of criticism.

Though this campaign did not improve Zola's material
position, it brought him into notoriety among the public,
and gave him quite a position among the young men of
the French art-world. At this time he still had his home
in the Rue de Vaugirard, overlooking the Luxembourg gar-
dens, but in the summer of 1866 he was able to spend
several weeks at Bennecourt, a little village on the right

1 " Mon Salon," Paris, Librairie Centrale, 1866, 12mo, 99 pages. The arti-
cles are also given in the volume entitled "Mes Hainea" (Charpentier and
Fasquelle).

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 97

bank of the Seine, near Bonni&res, and — as the crow flies
— about half-way between Paris and Rouen. Here he was
joined at intervals by some of his Provencal friends, Bailie,
Cezanne, Marius Roux, and Numa Coste ; l and they roamed
and boated, rested on the pleasant river islets and formed
the grandest plans for the future, while Paris became all
excitement about the war which had broken out between
Prussia and Austria. The crash of Koenigsgratz echoed but
faintly in that pleasant valley of the Seine, among those
young men whose minds were intent on art and literature.
But politically the year was an important one for France, for,
from that time, the Franco-German War became inevitable.
The Napoleonic prestige was departing. The recall of the
expeditionary force from Mexico had become imperative.
In vain did the unhappy Empress Charlotte hasten to
Paris and beg and pray and weep ; Napoleon III, who had
placed her husband Maximilian in his dangerous position,
would give him no further help, and she, poor woman, was
soon to lose her reason and sink into living death.

The year which had opened so brightly for Zola was to
end badly for him also. After shocking the readers of
" L'Evdnement " as an art critic, he imagined he might be
more successful with them as a story writer. So he pro-
posed a serial to Villemessant, who after examining a syn-
opsis of the suggested narrative, accepted the offer. The
story which Zola then wrote was called "Le Voeu d'une
Morte," but it met with no more success than the art
criticisms, and after issuing the first part, Villemessant

1 M. Coste, who is well known as a publiciste in France, should have
been mentioned earlier in this work. Though not so intimate with Zola as
Bailie and Ce"zanne, he knew him in his school days. He largely helped
Paul Alexis in the preparation of the latter's biographical work on Zola.

98 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

stopped the publication. The second part was never writ-
ten ; yet the abortion — for it was nothing else — was
issued in volume form,1 and of recent years has even
been translated into English,2 and reviewed approvingly
by English critics ! Zola himself always regarded it as the
very worst of his productions. " "What a wretched thing,
my Mend!" he remarked in a letter to M. George Char-
pentier twenty years after this story's first appearance.
"Nowadays young men of eighteen turn out work ten
times superior in craftsmanship to what we produced when
we were five and twenty."

This second failure to catch the public fancy injured Zola
considerably in the opinion of Villemessant, but the latter
continued to take various articles from him, such as a
series of literary character-sketches, entitled "Marbres et
Plfttres/* in which figured such men as Flaubert, Janin,
Taine, Paradol, and About. These articles were merely
signed " Simplice," — Zola's name having become odious to
the readers of " L'Ev&iement," — and portions were worked
by the author into later studies on French literary men.

About this time Villemessant found himself in serious
difficulties with the authorities, through having sailed too

near to politics in a journal only authorised for literature

,»

and news. " LJEv£nement " was suppressed, but its editor
turned * Le Figaro " into a daily organ, and Zola's services
were transferred to the latter journal. He contributed to
it a number of Parisian and other sketches, portions of

1 "Le Yoeii (Tune Morte," Paris, Faure, 1866, 18mo. Reissued by Cnar-
pentier, 1889 and 1891.

2 " A Dead Woman's Wish," translated by Count C. S. de Soissons, Lon-
don, 1902.

£MILE ZOLA* NOVELIST AND REFORMER 99

which will be found under the title " Souvenirs," in a sec-
ond volume of " Contes & Ninon," published in 1874.

In the latter part of 1866 his pecuniary position was a
declining one. As he wrote to his friend, Antony Vala-
brfegue, he found himself in a period of transition. He had
penned a pretty and pathetic nomelle, " Les Quatre Journ^es
de Jean G-ourdon," for " L'lllustration," l but he was chiefly
turning his thoughts to dramatic art, going, he said, as
often as possible to the theatre — with the idea, undoubt-
edly, that, as he had failed to conquer Paris as an art critic
and a novelist, he might yet do so as a playwright. The
young man was certainly indomitable ; after each repulse he
came up, smiling, to try the effect of another attack. Already
in 1865, although his comedy, " La Laide," had been de-
clined by the Od£on Theatre, he had started on a three-act
drama, called " La Madeleine," and this now being finished
he sent it to Montigny, the director of the Gymnase Thea-
tre, who replied, however, that the play was "impossible,
mad, and would bring down the very chandeliers if an
attempt were made to perform it." Harmant of the Vau-
deville also declined " La Madeleine/5 but .on the ground that
the piece was " too colourless," from which, as Alexis points
out, one may surmise that he had not troubled to read it.

After this experience Zola slipped his manuscript into a
drawer and turned to other matters. In December, 1866,
he is found informing Valabrkgue that he has received a
very flattering invitation to the Scientific Congress of
France,2 and asking him, as he cannot attend personally,

1 "I/Illustration," December 15, 1866, to February 16, 1867. The story
is included in the " ISTouveaux Contes & Ninon/' 1874.
a It must have been held, we think, at Marseilles or Aix.

100 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

to read on his behalf a paper he has written for it This
was a " definition of the novel," prepared, said Zola, accord-
ing to the methods of Taine,1 and it embodied at least the
germs of the theories which he afterwards applied to his
own work. When writing to Valabrkgue on the subject he
was in a somewhat despondent mood, for his position on
" Le Figaro " had now become very precarious. He wished
to undertake some serious work, he said, but it was impera-
tive that he should raise money, and he was " very unskil-
ful in such matters." Indeed, in spite of every effort, he
did not earn more than an average of three hundred francs
a month. Nevertheless, he still received his friends every
Thursday, when Pissarro, Bailie, Solari, and others went " to
complain with him about the hardness of the times."2 And
he at least had a ray of comfort amid his difficulties, for he
was now in love, was loved in return, and hoped to marry
at the first favourable opportunity. The young person was
tall, dark haired, very charming, very intelligent, with a
gift, too, of that prudent thrift which makes so many
Frenchwomen the most desirable of companions for the
men who have to fight for position and fame. Her name
was Alexandrine G-abrielle Mesley; before very long she
became Madame Zola.

In 1867 Zola put forth a large quantity of work. Early
in the year he quitted "Le Figaro," and bade good-bye
to the Quartier Latin, removing to Batignolles, quite at
the other end of Paris ; his new address being 1, Rue
Moncey, at the corner of the Avenue de Clichy. He was

1 The snbstance of the paper was worked into the articles which Zola col-
lected in the Yolume entitled " Le Eoman Experimental," Paris, 1880 et seq.

2 "La Grande Revue," May, 1903, p. 254*

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 101

now near Ms artistic friends of Montmartre, and complained
to Valabrfegue of having only painters around him, without
a single literary chum to join him in his battle. His asso-
ciation with artists led, however, to the production of a
fresh study on Manet,1 and to another abortive effort to
write a " Salon," this time in a newspaper called " La Situa-
tion," which the blind, despoiled King of Hanover had
started in Paris for the purpose of inciting the French
against the Prussians. This journal was edited by Edouard
Gr&der, a pulliciste and minor poet of the time, who was
well disposed towards Zola ; but the latter's articles again
called forth so many protests, that Gr^nier, fearing the
newspaper would be wrecked when it was barely launched,
cast his contributor overboard*

Zola fortunately had other work in hand, having ar-
ranged with the director of a Marseillese newspaper, "Le
Messager de Provence," to supply him with a serial story,
based (so Zola wrote to Valabrfegue), on certain criminal
trials, respecting which he had received such an infinity of
documents that he hardly knew how to reduce so much
chaos to order and invest it with life. He hoped, how-
ever, that the story, which he called "Les Mystferes de
Marseille," might give him a reputation in the south of
France, even if from a pecuniary standpoint it provided
little beyond bread and cheese, the remuneration being fixed
at no more than two sous a line. That, perhaps, was full
value for such matter; at all events the London Sunday
papers and halfpenny evening journals often pay no more,

1 First issued in the " Revue du XIX" Siecle w ; afterwards in pamphlet
form by Dentu, with, a portrait of Manet by Bracquemond, and an etching of
Manet's " Olympia " by the painter himself. The text was reprinted in the
volume, ** Mes Haines."

102 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

if indeed as much, for the serials they issue nowadays, the
majority of which are no whit better than was Zola's tale.
It was not literature certainly ; hut it was clearly and con-
cisely written, and generally good as narrative, in spite of
some sentimental mawkishness and sensational absurdity.
As often happens with hack work of this description the
tale opens better than it ends. Long, indeed, before it
was finished, the writer had grown heartily tired of it, as
many of its readers must have perceived. At the same
time it was not a work to be ashamed of, particularly in the
case of an author fighting for his daily bread; and Zola,
when at the height of his reputation, showed that he was
not ashamed of it, for on his adversaries casting this for-
gotten "pot boiler" in his face, he caused it to be re-
printed, with a vigorous preface, in which he recounted
under what circumstances the story had been written*1

The money paid for it had been very acceptable to him,
for it had meant an income of two hundred francs a month
for nine months in succession ; and it had enabled him to
give time to some real literary work, the writing of his first
notable novel, "Th&rfese Raquin." This he had begun in
1866; the idea of it then being suggested to him by
Adolphe Belot and Ernest Daudet's "V&ius de Gordes,"
in which a husband is killed by the wife's lover, who, with

1 Besides appearing serially in " Le Messager de Provence," " Les Mys-
teres de Marseille" was issued in parts (16mo) by Mengelle of Marseilles,
1867-1868 j and in volume form (with preface) by Charpentier, Paris, 1884.
Both " La Lanterne " and " Le Corsaire," of Paris, published the story serially
after the Franco-German "War. In the latter journal it was called " Ua Duel
Social/' by " Agrippa," under which title it was again issued in parts (12mo)
for popular consumption. There is an English translation : "The Mysteries
of Marseilles," translated by Edward Vizetelly. London, Hutchinson & Co.,
1895 et aeq.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER 103

his mistress, is sent to the Assizes. Zola, for his part, pic-
tured a similar crime in which the paramours escaped de-
tection, hut suffered all the torment of remorse, and ended
"by punishing each other. An article, a kind of nowvelle
which he contributed to " Le Figaro " on the subject, led
him to develop this theme in the form of a novel. In
parts, "Th&r&se Kaquin," as the author afterwards re-
marked, was neither more nor less than a study of the
animality existing in human nature. It was, therefore,
bound to be repulsive to many folk. But if one accept the
subject, the book will be found to possess considerable liter-
ary merit, a quality which cannot be claimed for Emile
Gaboriau's " Crime d'Orcival," with which it has been com-
pared by Mr. Andrew Lang. Gaboriau was a clever man
in his way, but he wrote in commonplace language for the
folk of little education who patronised the feuilletons of
" Le Petit Journal." No French critic, except, perhaps, the
ineffable M. de Brunetfere, who has declared the illiterate
Ponson du Terrail to be infinitely superior to the Goncourts,
would think of associating Gaboriau's name with that of
Emile Zola.

Under the title of "Un Mariage d'Amour," "TWrfese
Kaquin " was published during the summer and autumn of
1867, in Arskue Houssaye's review, " L' Artiste," which paid
Zola the sum of six hundred francs 1 for the serial rights.
There was some delay and difficulty in the matter. Hous-
saye, who was bien en cour, as the French say, and desirous
of doing nothing that might interfere with his admission to

1 £24 or about $120. Houssaye had previously paid Zola a third of that
amount for his study on Manet (see ante, p. 101), and the money had reached
the young author just in time to enable him. to save his furniture from being
seized and sold by a creditor.

104 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the Tuileries, informed Zola that the Empress Eugenie
read the review, and on that ground obtained his assent to
the omission of certain strongly worded passages from the
serial issue. But the author rebelled indignantly when he
found that Houssaye, not content with this expurgation,
had written a fine moral tag at the end of the last sheet
of proofs. Zola would have none of it, and he was right ;
yet for years the great quarrel between him and his critics
arose less from the outspokenness with which he treated
certain subjects than from his refusal to interlard his ref-
erences to evil with pious ejaculations and moral precepts.
But for all intelligent folk the statement of fact should
carry its own moral; and books are usually written for
intelligent folk, not for idiots. In the case in point the
spectacle of Ars&ne Houssaye, a curled, dyed, perfumed
ex-lady killer, tendering moral reflections to the author of
"Th6r&se Raquin," was extremely amusing. Here was a
man who for years had pandered to vice, adorned, beauti-
fied, and worshipped it, not only in a score of novels, but
also in numerous semi-historical sketches. For him it
was all " roses and rapture," whereas under Zola's pen it
appeared absolutely vile. In the end Houssaye had to
give way, and the moral tag was deleted.

Zola took his story to M. Albert Lacroix, who in the
autumn of 1867 published it as a volume, Naturally it was
attacked; and notably by Louis Ulbach, a writer with
whom Zola frequently came in contact ; for TJlbach did a
large amount of work for Lacroix, and was often to be met
at the afternoon gatherings at the Librairie Internationale.
It was he who had initiated the most popular book of
that year : Lacroix's famous " Paris Guide by the principal

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 105

authors and artists of France " ; but at the same time he
did not neglect journalism, and just then he was one of the
principal contributors to " Le Figaro," for which he wrote
under the pseudonym of "Ferragus." In an article printed
by that journal he frankly denounced " Th&rfese Kaquin " as
" putrid literature," and Zola, with Villemessant's sanction,
issued a slashing reply. This certainly attracted atten-
tion to the book, with the result that a second edition was
called for at the end of the year, which had not been a
remunerative one for the bookselling world, for it was
that of the great Exhibition when Paris, receiving visits
from almost every raler and prince of Europe, gave nearly
all its attention to sight-seeing and festivity.1

Zola had sent a copy of his book to Ste.-Beuve, for whom,
as for Taine, he always professed considerable deference,
though he reproached him somewhat sharply for having
failed to understand Balzac, Flaubert, and others. Ste.-
Beuve, having read " Th^r&se Kaquin," pronounced it to be
a "remarkable and conscientious" work, but objected to
certain of its features. Some years afterwards Zola had
occasion to refer to this subject, and the remarks he then
penned 2 may be quoted with the more advantage as they
embody his own criticism of his book: —

" I had sent cTh&*ese Raquin ' to Ste.-Beuve, and he replied to
me with a critical letter, in which I find that desire for average

1 "Therese Kaquin," Paris, Librairie Internationale: 1st edition, 1867;
2d, 1868 ; 3d, 1872 ; 4th and 5th, 1876 ; 6th, 7th, etc., Charpentier, 1880,
1882, etc. Illustrated editions: Marpon, 8vo, 1883; Charpentier, 32mo,
1884. Popular edition at 60 centimes: Marpon, 16mo, 1887. English
translations : (1) anonymous, Yizetelly & Co., dr. 1886-1889 ; (2) by Edward
Yizetelly, London, Grant Richards, 1902.

* " Le Voltaire," August 10-14, 1880. See also " Documents Litteraires,"
by & Zola, Paris, Charpentier (and Fasquelle), 1881 et $eq.

106 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE

truth, of which I have just spoken. Nothing could be fairer than
that criticism. For instance, he remarked of my description of
the Passage du Pont Neuf [the chief scene of the novel] : < It is
not accurate, it is a fantastic description, like Balzac's of the Eue
Soli. The passage is bald, commonplace, ugly, and, in particular,
narrow, but it has not the dense blackness, the shades a la Rem-
"brcmdt which you impute to it. This also is a way of being unfaith-
ful [to the truth]/ He was right ; only it must be admitted that
places merely have such mournfulness or gaiety of aspect as we
may attribute to them. One passes with a shudder before the
house where a murder has just been committed, and which seemed
quite commonplace only the previous day. None the less, Ste.-
Beuve's criticism holds good. It is certain that things are carried
to the point of nightmare in *Therese Eaquin/ and that the
strict truth falls short of so many horrors. In making this ad-
mission I wish to show that I perfectly understand and even ac-
cept Ste.-Beuve's standpoint of average truth. He is also right
when he expresses his astonishment that Thdrese and Laurent
[the wife and lover] do not content their passion immediately
after the murder of Camille [the husband] ; the case is open to
argument, but in the ordinary course of things they would live in
each other's arms before being maddened by remorse. It will be
seen then that, in spite of my own books, I share this respect for
logic and truth, and do not try to defend myself against criticism
which seems quite just. Yes, certainly, it is a bad thing to for-
sake the substantial ground of reality to plunge into exaggerations
of draughtsmanship and colouring."

About the time of the publication of " Th^rfese Eaquin "
Zola at last obtained the coveted honours of the footlights.
In conjunction with his friend Marius Eoux he wrote a
drama based on his "Myst&res de Marseille," and the di-
rector of the Marseillese Gymnase consented to stage it.
It is possible that this arrangement was effected during a
visit which the director made to Paris, for, according to
some accounts, a trial performance of the play took place

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOKMER 107

in the capital.1 Zola and Roux, being anxious to witness
its production at Marseilles, afterwards repaired thither,
and superintended the last rehearsals; but their hopes
were scarcely fulfilled, for although, as Alexis points out
rather naively, the first performance 2 " proceeded fairly well,
enlivened by only a little hissing," no more than two others
were ever given. And while it is true that a " run " could
hardly be expected in a provincial city, particularly in
those days, three solitary performances, followed by no
revival, could not be interpreted as signifying success.

Perhaps it was the failure of this effort that caused Zola
to abandon for some years all hope of making his way as a
dramatic author. Judging by the comparative success of
"Th6rkse Kaquin," novel writing seemed the safer course
for him. Accordingly, he transformed his rejected play,
"La Madeleine," into a novel, which he entitled "La
Honte," and offered as a serial to a certain M. Bauer, who
had established a new " Ev&iement." Bauer accepted it,
but its minute descriptions of the working of sensual
passion in a woman shocked his readers, and the publica-
tion ceased abruptly. On the whole, this story, written in
a large degree on the same lines as " Thdr&se Baquin," was
nofc a good piece of work. When Lacroix published it, how-
ever, in volume form, under the title of " Madeleine F^rat,"
it soon went into a second edition.3

This was the chief literary work accomplished by Zola

1 Theltre Beamnarchais, October 17, 1867.

2 October 27, 1867.

8 ** Madeleine F£rat," Paris, Librairie Internationale, 1st and 2d editions,
1868 ; 3d, Marpon and Flammarion, 1878 ; 4th, Charpentier, 1880 ; new edi-
tion, Charpentier, 1892, etc. Popular edition at 60 centimes, Marpon, 1891,
English translation : Yizetelly & Co., dr. 1888.

108 ]£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

in 1868, when lie also published a variety of articles in
different Paris newspapers. And as his books were now
selling fairly well, he began to think of giving some ful-
filment to an old and once vague project, to which the
example of Balzac's works had at last imparted shape.
Writing in May, 1867, to his friend Valabrfegue, he had
then said : " By the way, have you read all Balzac ? What
a man he was I I am reperusing him at this moment. To
my mind, Victor Hugo and the others dwindle away beside
him, I am thinking of a book on Balzac, a great study,
a kind of real romance/*

That book was never written, but the perusal of "La
Com^die Humaine " and its haunting influence at least
largely inspired " Les Rougon-Macquart."

THE FIRST "ROUGON-MACQUAETS"

1868-1872

The Goncourts, Zola, and his proposed "family history" — Origin of this
idea — Degeneration and heredity — Zola's agreement with M. Lacroix — -
He hegins **La Fortune des Rougon" — His intercourse with Meurice,
Coppee, etc. — His work on "Le Kappel," "La Tribune," "Le Gaulois"
— Sincerity of his democratic views — Gonconrt's allegation that he would
have sold his pen to the Empire — Some venal French journalists — Zola's
marriage and opinion of the married state — His home in the Rue de
La Condamine — ** Le Siecle" and "La Fortune des Rougon" — "La
CureV' begun — Zola takes his ailing wife to Provence — Outbreak of
war with Germany — Zola and military service — He conducts a news-
paper at Marseilles, becomes Secretary to Glais-Bizoin at Bordeaux, and
is offered a Sub- Prefecture — His chances as a state functionary — He
reverts to journalism and literature — His work on "La Cloche" and
" Le Corsaire " — Publication of " La Fortune des Rougon " — The public
prosecutor and " La Curee" — Its issue in book form — Failure of Zola's
publisher, Lacroix — The novelist's dire distress — The wool of his mat-
tresses sold to buy bread — He is recommended by Theophile Gautier to
M. Oharpentier — His "slop" clothes and his new publishing contract —
M. Charpentier's generous honesty — How Zola passed from penury to
affluence.

IT lias been mentioned already that when the Goncourts'
novel, " G-erminie Laeerteux," was published in 1865, some
little correspondence took place between Zola and the
authors, they being really grateful to him for the favour-
able review of their work which he had contributed to " Le
Salut Public," of Lyons. They told him that he alone had
understood the book, that his frankness consoled them for
much of the literary hypocrisy of the times, and that they
admired his courage in daring to confess his likings.1 Sub-
sequently, wishing to become personally acquainted with

1 "Lettres de Jules de Goncourt," etc., Paris, 1885, p. 219. (Letter dated
February 27, 1865.)

110 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Zola, they called on him, but found him absent. In Feb-
ruary, 1868, however, still remembering Ms article on their
book, they wrote to him in praise of " Th&r&se Raqtdn," in
which they detected the hand of an artist, one who had
probed human truth and crime to the core.1

From Alexis's account it has been inferred by several
writers that Zola and the G-oncourts became intimate in
1865 ; but the latter's " Journal " shows, peremptorily, that
they did not actually meet till December 14, 18 68,2 when
Zola lunched with the brothers at their house on the Boule-
vard Montmorency, at Auteuil. This time the approaches
probably came from Zola.8 The Goncourts were preparing
their novel " Madame Gervaisais," and he, with the idea of
writing an anticipatory article on it, seems to have applied
for information, whereupon he was invited to the Goncourts'
house. They had pictured him as somewhat of a Norma*
lien, a pedagogue, and they found him sickly, nervous,
anxious, deep, intricate, in fact almost a riddle ! He told
them of the difficulties of his position, admitted that his
novel, "Madeleine F&rat," ran off the rails and ought to
have been limited to three characters ; complained of having
to conform to idiotic editorial opinions in some articles he
was then contributing to " La Tribune," a weekly opposition
journal, and expressed a keen desire to find a publisher who,
over a term of six years, would pay him a sum of thirty
thousand francs for eight novels, in which the history of a
family would be recounted.4 This history, of course, was

1 "Lettres de Jules de Goncourt," p. 273 (February 5, 1868).

2 "Journal des Goncourt," Paris, 1888, 1*« Serie, Vol. III.

* "Lettres de Jules de Goncourt." See those of January 10, January 17,
and April 10, 1869.

* "Journal des Goncourt," YoL III, p. 245 et seq.

Photo by C. Martinet

Boulevard Zola, Aix»in- Provence

Photo by C. Martinet

On the Banks ot the Arc, near Aix

* ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 111

that of the Rougon-Macquarts, which finally expanded into
a series of twenty volumes.

At a later date, on August 27, 1870, while lunching with
Edmond de Goncourt,1 — Jules had died in the previous
June — Zola reverted to this subject and expressed his con-
viction that, after all which had been accomplished by others,
such as by Flaubert in " Madame Bovary," after all the an-
alysis of petty shades of feeling, all the minute jewelry work,
so to say, which had been done in literature, there was no
longer any call for the younger men to imagine and build up
any one or two characters ; they could only appeal to the
public by the power and the breadth of their creations, —
briefly, they must work on a large scale. And Zola al-
lowed it to be inferred that it was this view which had
prompted his scheme of a family history.

But he had not been influenced solely by that considera-
tion. The original germ of his idea lay far back, in that
projected poetic trilogy, "Gen&se," which was to have re-
counted the advent, development, and destiny of mankind.
That vague scheme, suggested by the pages of Lucretius, had
been resuscitated, transformed, modernised, so to say, by the
repeated perusal of Balzac's "Com^die Humaine"; and there
is little doubt that, from the practical standpoint of personal
advantage, Zola was also influenced by the success of many
connected series of books. It is a question whether Bal-
zac's novels were widely read at that moment. Cheap, badly
printed on the vilest paper, they were to be seen in almost
every bookseller's shop, but their covers, soiled and fading,
often spoke of long continuance in the dealers' custody ;
whereas there could be no doubt of the ready sale, the inx-

* "Journal des Goncourt," Vol. IV, p. 15.

112 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

mense vogue, of Erckmann-Chatrian's numerous productions.
Those so-called "Romans Nationaux" hung well together,
thanks to a variety of connecting links ; and in their pro-
digious circulation Zola constantly had hefore his eyes an
example of the great success which might attend a series of
novels leading skilfully one from the other.

But he did not propose to write about the past, even the
near past, such as the First Republic and the First Empire,
which had supplied Erckmann-Chatrian with their themes ;
his aim was to describe contemporary manners, those of the
then-existing Second Empire. That regime had begun in
blood, and had passed through some remarkable phases,
which would provide him with suitable backgrounds for
several stories. And it followed — purely and simply as a
matter of course — that the series he contemplated must be
largely a record of social and natural degeneration. The de-
generacy of the times was a stock subject, a commonplace
of contemporary literature. The playwrights — Ponsard,
Augier, Feuillet, Barri&re, Sardou, Dumas fils, and others, had
harped upon it for years. It had figured in numerous
novels ; it had formed the subject of many volumes of so-
called " serious " literature ; it had appeared in the pages of
Tocqueville, it had found an echo amid even the hopefulness
of Pr^vost-Paradol's " France Nouvelle " ; it was a theme
repeatedly selected by those newspapers which did not
pander to the supporters of the demi-monde. No doubt,
there has never been a time, since men began to write, when
some of them have not pictured the world and the human
species as degenerate. The cry, 0 ! tempora, 0 ! mores, has
re-echoed through all the centuries indiscriminately. But
under a rigime so base and corrupt as the Second French

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 113

Empire it was justifiable. There could then be no doubt
that degeneracy was indeed attacking the nation.

What Zola himself thought on the subject was indicated
by him with vigorous indignation in a newspaper article
apropos of the licentious operettas of the time. Protesting
against all the clappers who went into ecstasies when a so-
called actress emphasised " some obscene expression by her
contortions," he exclaimed : *' Ah, mis^re ! on the day when
the sublime idea occurs to some woman to play the part of a
, au naturel, on the stage, Paris will fall ill with en-
thusiasm. But what else can you expect ? We have grown
up amid shame ; we are the bastard progeny of an accursed
age. As yet we have only reached jerking of the hips, ex-
hibition of the bosom ; but the slope is fatal, and we shall
roll down it to the very gutter unless we promptly draw
ourselves erect and become free men." *

But another point has to be considered. At the very out-
set of Zola's scheme the predisposition towards certain
branches of science which he had shown in his youth
revived. The question of hereditary influence had already
attracted his attention while he was writing "Madeleine
3?6rat," and it assumed larger proportions and greater complex-
ity when he began to think of his projected family history.
The members of the family in question (like all others)
would be affected not merely by their actual environment
but also by psychological conditions coming from their
progenitors. Zola felt that he must study the question
carefully, and for some months his spare time was spent at
the Bibliothfeque Imperiale (now Rationale) where he read
every book he could discover treating of hereditary influence.

* "La Tribune," October, 1869.
8

114 £MJLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

As lie himself subsequently stated, among the works which
most impressed him, there was particularly one by a now
almost forgotten scientist, Dr. Prosper Lucas,1 the brother
of Charles Lucas, the eminent pioneer in criminology.

At the end of 1868 Zola drew up a scheme of his proposed
"family history/1 even then preparing the original genea-
logical tree of the Eougon-Macquarts such as he conceived
it.2 He set down also the terms on which he would write
the series, which at this date he proposed to limit to twelve
volumes. And he carried everything to his publisher, M.
Lacroix, who, while regarding the offer favourably, would
not bind himself at the outset for more than the first four
volumes. An agreement in that sense was signed in the
spring of 1869 ; it being stipulated that Zola was to write
two volumes each year and to receive five hundred francs a
month from Lacroix, not in actual payment for his work but
as an advance. The stories were to be sold in the first in-
stance to newspapers for serial issue, and with the proceeds
of those sales the publisher was to be refunded his advances,
wholly or in part. On the subsequent publication in book
form (each volume being priced at three francs 3) the author
was to receive a royalty of forty centimes (or about thirteen
per cent) on every copy sold. But if the publisher's ad-
vances had not been fully repaid with the newspaper money

* *' Traite philosophique et physiologique de THdredite N*aturelle dans les
£tatsde sante* et de maladie du Systeme ETerveux," Paris, 1847-1850, 2 vols.

8VO.

a This tree was subsequently inserted at the "beginning of "Une Page
d'Amour," 1878 et seg. The leaves bear the names of twenty-six characters,
But the series expanded, and with its last volume, "Le Docteur Pascal,'*
1893, a new genealogical tree was issued giving six more names.

9 That was then the usual price of a French novel. The rise to 3 franca
50 centimes took place after the War of 1870.

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 115

he was to reimburse himself out of the book royalties as
they accrued.

So far, the arrangement, though somewhat unusual, would
not seem to have been unduly intricate, but it was rendered
so by the further stipulation that every month, on receiving
his advance of five hundred francs, Zola should hand Lacroix
a promissory note for that amount, at three months' date,
those notes being renewable until each volume was issued,
when a proper account was to be drawn up. But with this
system confusion set in, particularly as after a long delay
in the serial issue of the first volume the War of 1870
supervened, in consequence of which M. Lacroix found
himself in serious financial difficulties.

To Zola, at the outset, everything seemed clear sail-
ing. He had ensured himself an annual income of six
thousand francs l for at least two years, and he had only
to set to work. Thus, in May, 1869, he started on his
first volume, "La Fortune des Rougon," in which he pic-
tured the origin of the family whose history he proposed
to recount, and its first ignoble rise to position with the
help of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat. The scene of the
narrative was laid at Aix, which had so long been Zola's
home and which, for his literary purposes, he now called
Plassans.2

His book was written in a Republican spirit with con-
siderable boldness for those Imperial times. And in this
connection, by way both of refuting a suggestion made by
Edmond de Goncourt, that Zola, in his penury, would will-
ingly have sold himself to the Empire, had it chosen to buy
him, and of showing the young author's participation in the

l £240, about $1,200. 3 See <mtc, p, 30.

116 ^MTLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

journalism of the period, it is as well that one should
momentarily retrace one's steps.

Already in 1867, through M. Albert Lacroix, his publisher,
Zola had become acquainted with M. Paul Menrice, an able
novelist and playwright, best known, however, by his con-
nection with Victor Hugo. The great man had a horror of
proof -correcting, and even in his lifetime much of his writ-
ing was passed for the press and, one may add, revised by
M. Meurice, to whom, since then, has fallen the task of
editing both the poet's correspondence and the editions
definitives of his books. In the last years of the third
Napoleon's reign Hugo lived at Brussels, M. Meurice acting
in many matters as his Parisian representative.1 Madame
Meuriee's drawing-room was thrown open to all the Hugo-
litres of the time ; and Zola often attended her receptions,
accompanied on some occasions by Duranty, on others by
Manet He then met several of the so-called Parnassian
poets,2 who, though their methods were often very different
from those of the master, professed great admiration for him.
Such were Sully Prudhomme and Francois Copp^e, both of
whom Zola first met in Madame Meurice's drawing-room.
With M. Coppfe, his relations became and remained intimate
until the great Dreyfus case, when the so-called "poet of
the humble," suffering from a serious chronic disorder, and
fearful of losing the services of an expert medical attendant
devoted to the priestly cause, resolved to save both soul
and body by joining the great crusade against the Jews.

1 Notably with regard to the publication of that extraordinary romance,
"L'Homme c[ui Rit," for which. Lacroix paid much more than its value.

2 The Parnassians, who were brought together by Xavier de Ricard, dated
from about 1860. The first series of "Le Parnasse contemporain " was issued
by Lenaerre in 1866.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 117

Towards the close of 1868 politics passed before litera-
ture in Madame Meurice's salon, for the tide of opposition
to the Empire was then rising rapidly. In May, that year,
Henri Rochefort, thanks to a new press law and the help
of Villemessant, had started his famous periodical, " La
Lanterne"; and in all directions the liberal newspapers
had become more and more outspoken, in spite of the many
sentences to fine and imprisonment which were heaped on
their managers, writers, and printers. The grant of the
right of public meeting added to the general unrest, and
when 1869 arrived the excitement of the Parisians be-
came the greater as general elections were appointed to
take place in May. "La Lanterne" having been crushed
— Rochefort seeking an asylum in Belgium where Hugo
gave him hospitality — many suggestions of starting an-
other opposition journal were made in Madame Meurice's
salon. A certain Barbieux, a victim of the Coup d?li!tat,
carried the idea to Hugo at Brussels, and no satisfac-
tory title having been as yet suggested, the poet under-
took to provide one. The next morning, says Rochefort
in his autobiography,1 he proposed "Le Rappel" — a speak-
ing title for those times, signifying a call to arms, the
mustering of all who wished to shake off the rule of
Napoleon IIL

From the first gossip at Madame Meurice's it had been
arranged that Zola should belong to the staff of the pro-
posed journal, the principal contributors to which were
Charles and FranQois Hugo, the great man's sons; Louis
Blanc the historian ; Auguste Vacquerie, perhaps the ablest

1 "The Adventures of my Life," "by Henri Kochefort, English edition,
London, 1896, Vol. I, p. 206.

"118 ^IMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEK

and most fervent of all the Hugol&tres ; 1 Paul Meurice, of
whom one has already spoken; Rochefort, who reprinted
portions of his " Lanternes " in " Le Eappel " ; Edouard
Lockroy, who subsequently married Charles Hugo's widow,
and since those days has been a member of more than
one Republican Chamber and Ministry ; Laferrikre, who
tinder the Eepublic became President of the Council of
State, and later Governor-general of Algeria; and finally
Zola.

It has already been shown that the latter was by no
means a frantic partisan of Victor Hugo; but he was
drawn towards the great man's band by circumstances, by
an admiration for the poet, which if tempered by his
critical sense was within its limits perfectly sincere, and
also by a genuine sympathy with the object which the
projected newspaper was to further. In one of his earliest
contributions to the press, one dealing with Napoleon Ill's
" Life of Csasar," he had shown that he in no wise admired
the Man of Destiny. Other early writings, even passages
of "Les Contes k Ninon," breathed a spirit incompatible
with Bonapartist imperialism. Further, life in the Quartier
Latin had helped to republicanise Zola, and when he took
to journalism for a livelihood, it was to the popular opposi-
tion press that he naturally turned. Even if " L'Ev£nement "
and "Le Figaro" were originally non-political, their ten-
dencies at any rate were against the Empire, Again, " Le
Salut Public," of Lyons, was not a government journal, nor
was " Le Gaulois," to which Zola contributed several arti-
cles on social subjects, literature, and literary men soon

1 His brother, Charles Vacquerie, after marrying the poet's daughter,
Lfopoldine Hugo, had been drowned with her off Villequier, in 1843.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 119

after its establishment by Edmond Tarb& Then, too, " La
Tribune," a weekly journal for which he wrote regularly,
was certainly most democratic, if rather eccentric in some
of its views.1

Nevertheless, a few years after the invasion and revolu-
tion, Edmond de Goncourt, lunching one day with Princess
Mathilde Bonaparte, did not hesitate to declare that the
Empire might have secured Zola's services had it chosen.
"He was penniless, he had a mother and a wife to keep,
At the outset he had no public opinions. You could have
had htm on your side like many others, had you chosen.
He could only find democratic newspapers to take his copy.
Living among all those folk, he became a democrat. It
was quite natural." And Goncourt added that the Princess
Mathilde had disarmed many hatreds and angers by her
friendship, graciousness, and attentions, winning over such
men as himself, his brother, .and Flaubert to the Empire
which, otherwise, they also would have attacked.2

Those allegations, so far as they concern Zola, cannot be
left unanswered. The Goncourts' "Journal" shows that
the brothers, with all their gifts, were not men of the
highest principles ; and it is evident that they often judged
others by their own standard. As a matter of fact there is
no shred of evidence that Zola would ever have sold him-
self to the Empire. At the time of that regime, as subse-

1 This was perhaps due to the circumstance that Glais-Bizoin, the enf<mt
terrible of the Republican opposition in the Corps L^gislatif, played the chief
part in the directorship of the paper, the latter^ better features being im-
parted to it by his co-editor, the scholarly Eugene Pelletan. It was run
chiefly in view of the 1869 elections and Zola subsequently remarked that
excepting himself and the office boy every member of its staff was a parlia-
mentary candidate.

2 "Journal des Goncourt," VoL V, p. 150 (November 13, 1874).

120 tMJLK ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

quently, his chief interest lay in literature and art, politics
came afterwards; hut so far as he concerned himself in
them hiB opinions were essentially democratic. In all re-
spects Edmond de Goncourt's assertions were erroneous.
If Zola had cared to sell his pen for political purposes he
might have done so with the greatest ease. In 1868-1869,
when he first began to give real attention to politics, the
authorities were only too anxious to secure clever men
who might reply to Rochefort and all the other opposition
writers. Large sums were spent in bribing journalists.
Yillemessant was paid ten thousand pounds to shake off
Rochefort and support the authorities; Emile de Girardin
was bought with the promise of a senatorship; Clement
Duvernois was secured by being placed at the head of a
new journal, "Le Peuple Frangais," on which the Privy-
purse, in little more than one year, expended over fifty-
six thousand pounds.1 More money was spent on other
journals, new ones like " L'Etendard," for which Auguste
Vitu (one of the original characters of Murge/s "Vie de
Bohfeme") was engaged; "Le Public," whose editor, Ernest
Drdolle, was financed; and " L'Epoque," whose nominal
proprietor was Dusautoy, the Emperor's tailor. For these
and other newspapers contributors were required, and a
good many clever but needy men of lax principles pre-
sented themselves. The less brazen among them found
their excuse in the pretended transformation of the regime ;

they would never have served the "personal Empire" of

course not! — but the "liberal Empire" commanded their
sympathies.

1 "Papiers et Correspondance de ]& Famille Imp&iale," Paris, Impri-
merie Rationale, 1870.

&MLLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 121

It follows that Edmond de Goncourt's estimate of Zola's
democratic tendencies was arrant nonsense. Paris had been
the young writer's home for several years now ; he knew
what to think of the Empire, and was against, not with, it.
However, he placed literature before politics, particularly as
all he saw of the political cuisine of the times inclined him
to regard many professional politicians with contempt.
And his Republicanism was not so intense as to restrict
him exclusively to Republican society* He admired the
Goncourts and Flaubert — to whom the former introduced
him in 1869 — as literary masters, and associated with
them freely. Again, he saw no reason why he should not
contribute stories to " L* Artiste " and " L'lllustration," even
if their editors did not think politically as he did. With
respect to "Le Rappel," though his contributions were at
times political they more frequently dealt with literary
subjects ; and the independence of his character was illus-
trated by the boldness with which he praised Balzac in a
journal patronised and in some degree financed by Victor
Hugo, who held that Balzac was fated to early and absolute
oblivion, because he could not even write French. The
result of Zola's championship of Balzac in "Le Rappel"
was the severance of his connection with that journal.
This, however, did not take place till the last months of
the Empire, when much of the paper's purpose was already
accomplished.

In the summer of 1869, after signing his contract with
Lacroix for the first Rougon-Macquart volumes, Zola felt
that he might at last venture to marry, and in July Made*
moiselle Mesley, to whom reference has been made already,1

1 See ante, p. 100.

122 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

became his wife. As he afterwards explained, apart from
the question of love, he held " the married state to be an
indispensable condition for the accomplishment of all good
and substantial work. The theory which pictured woman
as a destructive creature, one who killed an artist, pounded
his heart, and fed upon his brain — was a romantic idea
which facts controverted. For his own part, he needed an
affection that would guarantee him tranquillity, a loving
home, where he might shut himself up, so as to devote his
life to the great series of books which he dreamt of.
Everything, said he, depended upon a man's choice, and he
believed he had found what he needed, — an orphan, the
daughter of tradespeople, without a penny, but handsome
and intelligent."1

At this time, after removing from the corner of the
Avenue de Clichy and the Rue Moncey to 23, Rue Truffaut,
Zola had secured a little house or " pavilion " in the Rue de
La Condamine, — likewise at Batignolles, — a house reached
by crossing the courtyards of a larger building divided into
flats and facing the street. By opening an iron gate one
gained admittance to a small garden with a tiny lawn, over
which a large plum-tree cast its shade, while directly in
front of the pavilion was an arbour of Virginia creeper.
Three rooms on the ground floor, and three on the first,
" all like little drawers with partitions as flimsy as paper,"
such was the accommodation which the house offered ; and
the dining-room was so small that when a little later Zola
purchased a piano, the necessary space for it could only be
obtained by transforming a kind of china cupboard into an
alcove.2 The inmates of this band-box were four in num-

i "L'CEime," p. 208. a "I/GEuvre," p. 251. Alexis, p. 91.

£MTLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 123

her : Zola, his young wife, his aged mother, now in very
indifferent health, and his dog, a cross between a sheep-dog
and a Newfoundland/ — in a word the faithful Mathieu, of
whose last years and death the novelist afterwards wrote
so pathetically in " La Joie de Vivre." A servant-woman,
who slept out, attended to the harder and dirtier house-
work ; Madame Zola the younger took charge of most of
the cooking ; and it was amid these conditions, in this little
pavilion behind No. 14, Kue de La Gondamine, that the
young author, who had hut lately completed his twenty-
ninth year, resolutely set to work upon one of the greatest
literary efforts ever made, one which not only embraced a
most painstaking study of a period and its people, but
imported into fiction, for the first time in its history, virtu-
ally every application of the scientific theory of atavism.

Thus Zola gave effect to his old desire to try to reconcile
science and poetry — which he had only recently enun-
ciated once more in an article in "La Tribune." And in
the prosecution of this self-chosen task over a long term of
years, amid many difficulties, the greatest ridicule, the most
impudent misrepresentation, the most savage abuse that
every white-livered critic could think of, he did not once
swerve from the view he expressed in " Le Gaulois " about
the time "when he was signing his contract with Lacroix :
"If I kept a school of morals I would hasten to place
'Madame Bovary' or 'Q-ermirrie Lacerteux' in ray pupils1
hands, convinced as I am that only truth can instruct and
fortify generous souls." l

That view remained Zola's till his last hour.

Early in the summer of 1869 he handed the opening
1 " Le Gaulofs," Maxell 26, 1869.

124 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

chapters of his first volume, " La Fortune des Rougon," to
the acting-editor of " Le Si&cle," with which journal he had
negotiated its serial issue. * Le Sfecle " then held in Paris
a position similar to that of " The Morning Advertiser " in
London. That is to say, it was largely the organ of the
licensed victuallers, without, however, belonging to them.
Even as in England, there is sometimes said to be a Beer
and Bible alliance between the brewers and the clergy, so
"Le Si&cle" represented a kind of Wine and Democracy
compact. It was found in every Parisian wine shop, and
during the earlier years of the Empire it had been the only
journal of democratic tendencies which the authorities tol-
erated. L6onor Havin, who became an Opposition deputy
in the Corps L£gislatif, conducted the paper with great
ability for several years, but he was dead when Zola nego-
tiated the publication of his novel, and "Le Si&cle" had
fallen into the hands of that journalistic abomination, an
" editorial board." Zola had a friend at court in the person
of M. Castagnary, who many years previously had done for
Courbet what Zola, comparatively recently, had done for
Manet. But Castagnary, while exercising considerable in-
fluence, helping to impart a more resolute Republican tone
to the paper, was not all powerful in the board room ; and
not only had Zola already made a good many enemies in
his own profession, but a recollection of the opposition
which his earlier novels had encountered from the readers
of other newspapers, so influenced "Le SifecleV editorial
committee that it again and again postponed the publication
of " La Fortune des Rougon."

Thus Zola found himself in an unpleasant position at the
very moment when he hoped to live in a little quietude and

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 125

comfort. M. Lacroiz, for some months, made the stipu-
lated advances without raising any difficulty, but when
1870 arrived the position became more and more un-
certain. Zola was reduced to such a state of anxiety that
for weeks at a time he could hardly write, and it was
only the encouragement he received from his brave young
wife that gave him enough energy to persevere.

Thanks to newspaper work, he earned just sufficient
money to live on meagrely from day to day and keep the
home together ; and at last, the publication of " La Fortune
des Rougon " being still deferred, he turned from that work,
which he had not quite completed, in order to begin another.
This was " La Cur4e," into which some of his critics have
read a great many things which he never put in it. Politi-
cally and financially, it was simply the story of the Hauss-
manisation of Paris, while morally its central intrigue was
neither more nor less than an adaptation of the ancient
legend of Phaedra to the corrupt times of the Empire. Of
this second book Zola had just written the first chapter, at
the end of May, 1870, when "Le Sifecle" suddenly decided
to publish his earlier work. So once again the young author
reverted to " La Fortune des Rougon," correcting the proofs
of the commencement and penning the conclusion.

Things looked brighter now, but after that year of keen
anxiety Madame Zola was in a very ailing state and needed
change and rest. Zola himself felt a longing to get away
from Paris for a time, and so, after making various pecu-
niary arrangements with M. Lacroix and "Le Si^cle," he
started with his wife and mother for Provence. Then, all
at once, came the thunderclap : Napoleon III declared war
against Prussia, France was invaded ; her armies were sur-

126 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

prised at Wissemburg, overthrown at Woerth, thrust back
from Borny and Gravelotte under Metz, routed at Beau-
mont, surrounded and captured at Sedan. The Empire
fell, and a fortnight later the Germans invested Paris.
Zola, now in his thirty-first year, was not called upon to
undertake any military duties like others of that age, for,
being the only son of a widow, the law exempted him from
service. It is true, no doubt, that other widows' sons at
that time occasionally joined the colours as volunteers, in
spite of the legal exemption. And on that account, at a
subsequent period, directly after the publication of "La
D£b&cle," Zola's enemies made much of the fact that he had
not done likewise.

But proper allowance should be made for Ms circum-
stances at the time. The investment of Paris had cut
him off from his usual sources of income ; he found him-
self virtually adrift, at Marseilles, with his sick wife and his
old mother, who had become more or less infirm. They had
little or no money, there was no relative with whom they
might seek a refuge, and if Zola, in a fine spirit of patriot-
ism, had gone to join the army, the two women would have
become dependent on the charity of the public. At first
Zola was at a loss what to do. But meeting M. Arnaud,
who had published his "Myst&res de Marseilles'* in the
" Messager de Provence," he prevailed on him to run a popu-
lar halfpenny war journal, which was called " La Marseil-
laise." Zola's friend, Marius Roux, who was then also in
the city, joined him in the venture, and between them they
wrote the whole paper, which at the outset seemed likely
to prove successful, its sales amounting to ten and fifteen
thousand copies ; but typographical and other difficulties

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 127

arose, and at last, instead of money being earned, it was
lost

In December (1870) Zola's position at Marseilles being
once more little short of desperate, he went to Bordeaux
to seek some work there, that city having lately become
the capital of Prance by the removal of the National
Defence Delegation from Tours. At Bordeaux he found
Glais-Bizoin, under whom he had formerly contributed to
" La Tribune," and Glais-Bizoin, who was now a member of
the Government, a colleague of Gambetta, Cr^mieux, and
Fourichon, made him his secretary. Short, lean, a septu-
agenarian, with a glistening cranium and a nose like a hawk's
beak, this Breton proconsul was one of the amusing person-
alities of the time. An ardent democrat, he had sat in
the legislative chambers of the July Monarchy, the Second
Republic, and the Second Empire, making himself quite a
parliamentary reputation, not by his own speeches, but by
the caustic, galling, and irrelevant manner in which he
interrupted the speeches of others. Under his aegis Zola
became acquainted with the whole entourage of the National
Defence Delegation, from the astute and prim Q&nent
Laurier, who had negotiated the notorious Morgan Loan, to
the dishevelled, bohemian, and nicotian Georges Cavali£,
otherwise Pipe-en-Bois, who, tapping the British ambassador,
Lord Lyons, on the shoulder one morning, while his excel-
lency was somewhat impatiently waiting for Gambetta, had
suggested familiarly : " I say, old man, don't bother about
the governor ; let 's go and have a good glass of beer ! " I

1 The "Blowitz Memoirs" (London, 1903} give an erroneous version of
this story, transferring the scene to the Quai d'Orsay, in Paris, and making
Cavalie secretary to Paschal Grousset, " Delegate for Foreign Affairs " of the

128 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER

In these circumstances Zola summoned his wife and
mother to Bordeaux, and set himself to write letters and
prepare reports for Grlais-Bizoin, pending another appoint-
ment ; for the old democrat, on introducing him to Cldment
Laurier, who disposed of most of the civil patronage, had
said : " I want a prefecture for this young man, — the first
one that may fall vacant." In Glais-Bizoin's estimation,
Zola's claim to such a post was self-evident; for he had
belonged to the staff of €t La Tribune," and since the Kevo-
lution of September 4 all the writers on that journal had
become members of the Government, ambassadors, or pre-
fects. In Zola's case the first vacancies which occurred
were the prefectures of Bayonne and Auch, but both were
secured by more eager and active candidates, and all that
Laurier could ultimately offer was a sub-prefecture, that of
Castel-Sarrasin, a pleasant little town of seven thousand
inhabitants, on the Garonne, not far from Montauban.

This incident in Zola's career has been turned by some
of his detractors into an exciting romance which it is un-
necessary to recapitulate. The main facts have been given
by Alexis, to whose Account a few particulars may be added,
The war at that time was drawing to an end. Gambetta was
anxious to prevent any partisans of the fallen Empire from
being returned at the elections for an Assembly, which were
becoming more and more inevitable and imminent. There
was a sub-prefect at Castel-Sarrasin named Camille Delthil.

Commune of 1871. As Lord Lyons was not then in Paris, that Torsion ia
obviously wrong. The incident, which the ambassador himself narrated more
than once in after years, really occurred at Tours late in 1870, Cayalie'a
words being : " Dites clone, mon vieux, il ne faut pas se faire de bile, au
sujet du patron. Allons plut6t prendre un bon bock ! " CaYalie" was a
notorious bohemian, worthy of Murger ; he had been one of the leaders of the
cabal against the Gkmeourts' play, " Henrietta Marshal. >f

6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 129

He was a young poet, tlie author of a volume of " Poem.es
Parisiens," to which he afterwards added " Les Kustiques "
and " Les Lambrusques." He discharged his duties with the
literary grace of a true Parnassian, and a mildness which
arose from the circumstance that he was himself a native of
Castel-Sarrasin. G-ambetta deemed him altogether too mild.
According to the Dictator, to ensure the return of a Bepub-
lican in that constituency a strong-fisted sub-prefect was
needed, a man, too, who could pen vigorous and stirring
proclamations. Now it occurred to Clement Laurier that
Zola had a vigorous style and a stern mien, so why should
not the novelist be set in the place of the poet, the latter
being gently transferred to some other office ? But Delthil
would not consent to this arrangement. Having been born
at Castel-Sarrasin, he gloried in ruling it.

According to the legend, he now threw off all his mild-
ness, barricaded himself in his sub-prefecture, and defied
both the Government and Zola, in such wise that the latter,
although duly " gazetted," was unable to take possession of
his post when he repaired to Castel-Sarrasin. But he
never went there. The truth is that he had barely accepted
the appointment when Paris capitulated, and Jules Simon
arrived at Bordeaux to put an end to some of Gambetta's
high-handed proceedings. Forthwith, in presence of the
general " muddle " which arose, and with the thought, also,
that now communications with Paris were restored, he
might revert to journalism, and ultimately to literature,
Zola called on Laurier and withdrew his acceptance of the
appointment.

It may be idle and unprofitable to speculate concerning
"the might-have-been," yet a few remarks may well be

130 fefcOLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

offered respecting this curious episode in Zola's career.
His original acceptance of Laurier's offer was explained by
Mm to Alexis. Those were wild times, and every mind
was more or less unhinged. <£ For my part," said Zola, " I
imagined that it was the end of the world, and that there
would be no more literature. I had brought the manu-
script of the first chapter of 'La Cur^e' with me from
Paris, and I occasionally looked at it as I might have looked
at some very old papers which had become mere souvenirs.
Paris seemed to me very far away, lost in the clouds ; and,
as I had my wife and mother with me and no certain pro-
spect of money, I ended by thinking it quite natural and
advisable that I should plunge into politics, for which I
had felt so much contempt previously, — a contempt which
speedily returned." l

There was some little exaggeration in those last words as
the sequel will show, though as Zola was a man of absolute
convictions, one who detested compromises, it was- only
natural that he should look unfavourably on many politi-
cians and their methods. But, whatever his views, it hap-
pened that politics repeatedly played an important part in
his Hfe, even at the time when he appeared most devoted
to purely literary pursuits. It does not seem very difficult
to divine how his career would have shaped itself had he
become a functionary. As he had too independent a char-
acter to execute any orders unless he regarded them as
right, he would soon have found himself at loggerheads
with his superiors, dismissed or compelled to resign; and
unlike the majority of the discarded functionaries of the
period he could hardly have sought compensation in a
1 Alexis, I, c., p. 173.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 131

parliamentary seat, for he was no orator. Thus, like some
others, he might have heeome a mere hanger-on of the
Republican party, one of those who only secured a real
livelihood subsequent to Thiers and MacMahon, when Gam-
betta's influence again became paramount in France.

His refusal, at the first opportunity, of the sub-prefectoral
appointment which he had only accepted as a pis-aller, was
therefore wise. He could not get rid of politics, whatever
may have been his desires, but he at least confined himself
to the duties of a, political journalist. He became a cor-
respondent of "Le Semaphore," the chief daily paper of
Marseilles, his connection with which lasted seven years.
Further he placed himself in communication with "La
Cloche " of Paris, for which he had written a few articles
previous to the Siege, and which, curiously enough, was
directed by Louis Ulbach, — the novelist and critic who
had denounced "Th&£se Raquin" as "putrid literature."
That quarrel, apparently, had been patched up, and Zola
and Ulbach, while remaining of antagonistic literary schools,
had found some basis of agreement in politics. At all
events the former now became the descriptive parliamen-
tary correspondent of " La Cloche," recording the doings of
the National Assembly, first at Bordeaux, later at Versailles,
his connection with this journal lasting till the summer of
1872, when he carried his pen to " Le Gorsaire," for which
he wrote several fiery political articles, one of which, called
"The Morrow of the Crisis"1 almost led to the paper's
suppression.

1 This was a crisis provoked by Thiers' Presidential Message of November
13, 1872, by which he asked for the definite constitution of a Republic, a pro-
posal which led to a great outcry on the part of those who wished to place the
Count de Chambord or the Connt de Paris on the throne.

1B2 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Leaving Bordeaux for Bans about the time when the
Assembly removed to Versailles, Zola who had seen noth-
ing of the German siege, at least witnessed various incidents
of the Commune.1 The little house in the Rue de La Con-
damlne was now again his home, and at times he went
about the city, and at others betook himself to Versailles,
zealously attending to his duties for " La Cloche." At that
moment there could be no thought of book-writing; but
after the fall of the Commune at the end of May, 1871, he
again turned to " La Cur6e^ and prevailed upon Ulbach to
print that story as a serial Considerable confusion still
prevailed in Paris, and he was put to many shifts for infor-
mation which he needed — shifts which some of his critics
afterwards imputed to him as crimes, though the wonder is
that he should have "teen able to write such a book at all,
in Mi© hurly-burly through which France was passing.

** La Curfew began to appear in "La Cloche * towards the
and of September (1871), and about the same time Lacroix
at last published the initial volume of the series, "La
Fortune des Rougon," the final chapter of which had
remained lying in the offices of " Le Si&cle " throughout the
war, much to the alarm of Zola, who had regarded it as
lost. The book met with little sale, little recognition, but
this is not surprising. France had not yet recovered from
the great convulsions of the war and the Commune, and
small was the attention vouchsafed to literature. Moreover,
as Paris slowly settled down to a degree of quietude, it
desired, amusement more than anything else — the spright-
liest music, the gayest songs, the very lightest literature
obtainable- It was the usual reaction, the same which

1 See "Swrenirs ; XIV," in the "Nouveaux Contes k Ninon."

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEB 138

had come with all the frivolity of the Directory after the
Terrof s bath of blood. Produced, then, under the most
unfavourable conditions, " La Fortune des Eougon " did not
even secure the honour of a real second edition, for the
copies which may be found bearing the mention "second
edition" on their covers and title-pages, were merely a
residue of the first one, only a portion of which was bound
when the book originally appeared.1

This was bad, and it seemed really as if Zola would never
reach the end of his troubles, for the Public Prosecution
service took note of "La Cur6e" as it appeared in "La
Cloche," and adjudged a certain account of a supper at the
Caf£ Eiche to be immoral. It was early in November
when Zola received an intimation from the Public Prose-
cutor requesting him to call at his office. He did so and
was received by an official who "advised" him to cease
publishing his story in a newspaper. Zola protested the
purity of his intentions, explained that his one desire was
to show the corruption of society under the fallen Empire,
but he finally accepted the official " advica" On Novem-
ber 8, then, he wrote to Ulbach, asking him to suspend
publication, his letter being printed in " La Cloche " with
the following editorial comment : " We desire that the
public should fully know that whatever may be our per-
sonal opinion of Zola's analytical method, and whatever
danger he may incur from the audacity of his studies, his
imprudence is that of a most upright character, sincerely
attached to truth in art."

1 "La Fortune des Rougon," Librairie Internationale. 1st and 2d edi-
tions: 1871, 389 pages, 18mo, 3 francs; 3d edition, Charpentier, 1872, 385
pages, 18rao, 3 francs 50 centimes. Thirty-eighth thousand on sale in 1903.

134 J3HL1 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

As It happened, the serial issue, if suspended in " La
Cloche/1 was completed in a periodical called " La K«§pub~
lique des Lettres** which Catulle Mendfes, the poet and
son-in-law of Th^ophile Gautier, was then editing. Mendfes
placed himself at Zola's disposal directly he heard of the
affair, and curiously enough he rendered him a similar ser-
Yice some years later with respect to " I/AssommoIr." The
first edition of " La Cunfe ** was produced hy Lacroix early
in 1872,1 and soon afterwards the publisher, whose interests
had been greatly affected by the war, was forced to suspend
business. Thus once more the demon of ill-luck fell upon
Zola's home. The "Lettees parisiennes" which he was
then writing for ** La Cloche,** his correspondence for " Le
Semaphore,1* did not supply all his needs ; terrible times
eama b&ek, numerous bills giYen to Lacroix were protested,
executions followed, and on one desperate occasion, there
being nothing pawnable, for everything had been seized
exaept' the bedding, which according to the law could not
b© attached, the very wool of the mattresses on which Zola
and his wife slept was sold by the latter to a dealer in order
to procure the necessary money for bread.

In these distressful circumstances a great service was
rendered to Zola by a man for whose literary style he had
no great admiration, though curiously enough it was in
more than one respect akin to his own. This was Th&>-
phile Gautier to whose connection with Catulle Mendfes
reference has just been made. Gautier had a fair know-
ledge of the young man's literary work, and he heard, pro-

1 **lA CHT&," Librairie Internationale; 1st edition: covers dated 1872,
titiie-piges» 1871, &SO pages, 18mo> S francs ; 2d edition, Cnarpentier, 1872,
854 piges, ISnio, S francs 50 centimes ; 5th edition, 350 pages, 1876 ; fiftieth
thousand on sale in 1903.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 135

bably from Mendfes, of his terrible position. Now Gautier's
publisher was M. Georges Charpentier, who had lately taken
over his father's business, and one evening when they and
Francisque Sarcey were together at the Com^die Frangaise,
their conversation, during one of the entr'actes, fell on the
young writers of the time. "There is one among them/*
said Gautier,1 "who is very unlucky, and who is different
from most of the others. You should admit him among
your authors, my dear Charpentier. If I am not vastly
mistaken he possesses a touch of genius. His name is
Emile Zola, Have you ever heard of him?"

Yes, both Charpentier and Sarcey had often heard of Zola,
and had remarked his repeated efforts to get to the front.
Nevertheless they were somewhat surprised by the praise
which had fallen from Gautier's lips. He, subsequent to
this conversation, caused Zola to be informed of the recom-
mendation he had given him, and the young novelist soon
called on M. Charpentier, whose establishment was then on
the Quai du Louvre. For just one moment there had been
a little hesitation on Zola's part. His only suit of clothes
was quite disreputable, and both he and his devoted young
wife felt that he ought, at least, to appear decently clad
before this publisher on whom his fate depended. There
was very little money in the house, but Madame Zola took
it and hurried to the "slop" market of the Temple, where
she purchased a second-hand suit of black, the nearest
approach to a fit that she could find. In those slop gar-
ments— which remind one of Daudet's black trousers,
similarly acquired, which suddenly became a military red,
having been very imperfectly dyed — Zola presented himself

* M. Adolphe Brisson in "Le Temps," October 3, 1902.

1S6 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOBMER

before Charpentier, and was pleased to find that he had to
deal, not with the stern founder of the business, whom
some authors regarded as a kind of terror, bnt with the son,
a pleaaant, cordial man of about his own age.

The position was explained: Lacrobc was ruined, and
Zola wished to transfer his contract with certain modifica-
tions, M. Charpentier asked for twenty-four hours to con-
sider the matter, and on the morrow an agreement was
arrived at. During a period of five years Zola was to
supply two novels every twelvemonth, and Charpentier was
to hand him five hundred francs every month ; that is to
say, in addition to the two volumes published by Lacroix
there would be ten others, representing in the aggregate a
sum of thirty thousand francs. Whereas, however, in the
contract with Lacroix, the money received by Zola was
regarded as an advance, in that with M. Charpentier it was
to be actual payment, in return for which the full copyright
in each of the ten novels which Zola engaged to write would
belong to M. Charpentier for ten years. During that period
he would be at liberty to produce them in whatever manner
he pleased, both serially and in book form, as well as to sell
the rights of translation to foreign publishers, without
paying Zola a single franc beyond the stipulated monthly
allowance.1 As Zola desired that the entire series should
be in the hands of one publisher, a desire which Charpentier
shared, there was also an understanding respecting "La
Fortune des Eougon " and " La Curge/' the right to repub-
lish which was secured from Lacrofx by a payment of eight
hundred francs.

The agreement with Gharpentier certainly extricated Zola

1 AH that tike author retained was the dramatic rights.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 137

from an extremely difficult, position, and it is unlikely that
he would have secured better terms, or even as good, else-
where. But what did they amount to? To the prospect
of an income of two hundred and forty pounds l a year for
five years, in exchange for ten novels. As the sequel
showed, such an income would hardly have sufficed for
Zola's wants, particularly as there were many claims on
him with respect to the bills he had given Lacroix. No less
than thirty thousand francs* worth of paper bearing his
signature or endorsement was in circulation about this
time, says Alexis, and Zola had the greatest difficulty to
prove that he had not been the ruined publisher's "man
of straw." The nominal amount of his indebtedness was
swollen, and the intricacy of the position increased, by the
circumstance that many a time when a bill had been
renewed it had not been returned to him, though the new
bill was placed in circulation. It was only in 1875 that
Zola was able to recover his notes and acceptances, and
generally liquidate his position, by the payment of various
amounts in accordance with an arrangement entered into
with M. Lacroix. The latter, be it said, was an honourable
but unlucky man, a victim both of circumstances and of
misplaced confidence in others.

But, to return to Zola. His contract with M. Charpentier
did not free him from the necessity of doing his utmost to
increase his income by journalism, to which he devoted no
little time. This threw him back with his novels, which,
as will be shown, often necessitated considerable prelimi-
nary study, and which he refused to " scamp." The pub-
lishing arrangement he had made partook undoubtedly of a

* ATxmt $1,200.

188 laCILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

character; but lie was resolved that there
should be nothing of the nature of pot-boiling about his
literary work He found at last that he could not write
more than one novel a year, and thus, though he drew his
money regularly enough, the time came — in or about 1875
— when he owed M. Charpentier two or three volumes.
Mustering his courage, he called on his publisher to explain
his position. But at the first words he spoke with respect
to his overdraughts, M. Charpentier interrupted him.

** My dear friend," said he, " I do not wish to rob you.
I do not want to derive more than my usual profits from
your work I have lately had an account of your sales
drawn up on the basis of an author's royalty of forty
centimes per volume,1 and according to this account, it is
not you who owe me money, it is I who owe you some ten
thousand franca Here is our agreement, I tear it up, and
aH you have to do is to see my cashier.**

As Alexis remarks, after telling this story, what other
publisher would have done such a thing ? In Zola's case
it raised him from modest circumstances to affluence. Had
the original contract remained in force he would have
earned, inclusive of the earlier payments from Lacroix, no
more than forty thousand francs by the first twelve volumes
of his "Kougon-Macquart " series. At least he would have
earned no more during the first ten years of their circula-
tion. But thanks to M. Gharpentier's generous honesty, —
the successive increase, too, of Zola's royalty from forty to
fifty and sixty centimes per volume, the various sums
accruing from special issues, illustrated editions, popular

1 The books sold at 3 francs 50 centimes each ; so the above would repre-
sent a royalty of about 11 per cent.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 139

editions, Sditi&m de luxe, serial rights and translation rights
— all of which, under the agreement, would have belonged
to the publisher — he earned by those twelve books fully
twenty times the amount of money he had covenanted to
take for them.

That said, it is as well to return to the year 1872, and
show how, his long spell of absolute ill-luck ceasing, Zola,
while still encountering much hostility, which presently
was to grow into a furious storm, gradually advanced along
the path of success, assisted by literature's handmaiden,
journalism, and cheered by the friendship of some of the
foremost men of letters of his time.

THE PATH OF SUCCESS

1872-1877

Flaubert tad Ms intimates: Zola, Ooncourt, Tourgeneflf, Daudet, and Mau-
passant — 4< Th&te* Raquin " m a play — * ' Le Ventre de Paris " and the
wsasitiv® critics — A first charge of plagiarism — The "Binners of the
Hiw»d Authors ** — Zola, and good fare — Sunday gatherings at Flaubert's

— ** La Conqute de Piassans ** — *e Lea H^ritiers Kabourdin " — Zola in
the Bo© St. Georges — His contributions to a Russian review — **La
Faote de FAbW Mouret " — " Nouveaux Contes a Ninon"— "Son Ex-
<»IIence Engine Rougon" — The truth about "back-stairs gossip" —
Flaubert's mimicry of Napoleon III — Zola, Daudet, and " personalities"
in fiction — Zola " s®m mice and birds ** — His stay at St. Anbin-sur-Mer

— He plans " L'Assonwnoir " — Publication of t4 Son Excellence " — Dra-
iwttKS cxitMsin for "Le Bien Public^ — Zola's income early in 1876 —
Serial iwoe of " L'Assojmiiioir" — The outcry and the cessation of publi-
cation— OatuBe Mend^s to tit© rescue — "L'Assotnrnoir" as a book —
Its large sales — A furious controversy — Articles, pamphlets, poems,
pwodies» awl lectures — Ttte years of "L*Assc«nmoir** a date in French
lAt«mtiire — Other writings of the time — Zola's "band/* Alexis, Huys-
mans, Manpassant, Ceard, and Hennlqne — Flaubert, " I/ Assommoir "
aad "Naturalism" — Zola*a hammer, journalism — Self-assertion and
pnshfnlness the weapons of the age.

AITER tJie Franco-German War, Gustave Flaubert, wlio dur-
ing fifteen years of the imperial r&gime Md resided, when in
Paris, on the Boulevard du Temple, found a gied-h-terre in
the Bue Murillo, near the Fare Monceau, thereby becoming
one of Zola's neighbours, for the Eue Murillo is only a few
minutes' walk from the Eue de La Condamine, Zola fre-
quently called on Flaubert, whom he at first found very
downcast, for the fall of the Empire seemed to him the end
of the world, and besides, he had not yet recovered from the
failure of his book, " L'Education sentimentale," published
in 1869. It was at Flaubert's that Zola again met Edmond

fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER 141

de Goncourt, who was still mourning his brother, and feeling
so discouraged that he hardly dared to take pen in hand.
With Zola and Goncourt came Flaubert's young disciple,
Guy de Maupassant, at that moment little more than one-
and-twenty, then Ivan Tourgeneff and Alphonse Daudet,
whom. Zola had already met in the days of ** L'Ev&iement,**
these five being for a time the only intimates of the author
of "Madame Bovary." They were not a very gay party, it
would seem. One Shrove Sunday, says Zola, while the car-
nival horns were resounding in the streets, he sat till night-
fall listening to Goncourt and Flaubert, who for hours did
not cease recalling the past and lamenting its disappearance.1
Goncourt, on his side, receiving Zola about this time (June,
1872), once more found him sickly and neurotic, complain-
ing confusedly of rheumatism, heart and bladder trouble,
and mastered by such acute nervous trembling that he had
to employ both hands to carry his glass to his lips.2

At that date Zola was planning a novel on the Paris
markets — "Le Ventre de Paris" — and dramatising his
earlier book, "Th&fese Eaquin," working, so he told Gon-
court, some nine hours and a half every day. When his
play was finished he offered it to M. Hostein, the director of
a new Parisian theatre, La Renaissance, and after numerous
alterations had been effected, its five acts being reduced to
four, it was staged and produced on July 11, 1873, when it
met with a curious reception. The more frivolous, the
"society" section of the audience, could not endure such
tragic sombreness, and Francisque Sarcey, who held that the
stage only existed for the amusement of the public, declared

1 Zola's " Documents Litteraires," p. 178,
a *' Journal des Gtoncourt," VoL IV, p. 44.

142 ZOLA, NQYELIST AND REFORMER

that "fchia mm Zola1* made him feel " quite ill1* If, how-
ever, there was some hissing at the first performance of
"Thfofcee Raqmn,n there was also some applause, and
when the curtain fell the question of success or failure
seemed still to be hanging in the balance. But the profes-
sional critics agreed to slate the play, and moreover the
€* dog-days " were just beginning, the heat emptying even
those theatres which had hitherto drawn large audiences, in
such wise that after nine performances La Renaissance
closed its doors for the summer vacation, aad "Th£r&se
Baqtun," as a play, was heard of no more.

Zola consoled himself with the comparative success of his
novel, u Le Ventre de Paris," l which reached a second edition
deservedly, for its kaMdoscopic pictures of the Paris mar-
kets were the best descriptive work that the author had
as yet penned* Nevertheless, the book encountered some
sevesre criticism at the hands of the few reviewers who con-
descended to notice it. "Writers devoid of any Rabelaisian
sense denounced it as the apotheosis of gluttony ; the trans-
ference of a pork-butchers shop to literature was regarded
as outrageous ; and a certain u symphony of cheeses * gave
one critic such a fit of nausea, that an unsuspecting foreigner
reading his remarks might have imagined cheese to be an
abomination to the delicately constituted Parisians, whereas,
in fact, they then consumed — and still consume to-day — a
greater amount and a greater variety of cheese, often with

1 ^Le Ventre de Paris,** Paris, Gharpentier, 1873, 2 editions, 18mo, 362
pages; Set edition, 1876, 18mo, 358 pages. From this point all the volumes
of the ordinary edition of " Les Eougon-Macquarlj" were priced at 3 francs 50
centimes. Tbe forty-seventh thousand of " Le Ventre de Paris " (Charpen-
tier edition} was on sale in 1903. There is also an edition illustrated with
wood eagravJEgs, Paris, Plananarlon, n* d. laige 8va

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 143

the strangest flavours and odours, than any other community
in the world.

But, apropos of this same '* symphony," a Parnassian poet,
— one who was then regarded as a neo-Grecian, neither more
nor less, — M. Anatole France, pointed out rightly enough
that the imagery in which Zola indulged was inconsistent
with his claim already put forward, though not definitely
enunciated, to be a realistic writer. ** Such vain, empty, and
detestable virtuosi^" had no place, said M. France, in the
realist system ; and indeed, taking that system as it was de-
fined by Zola under the name of naturalism a little later, M.
France was assuredly correct As a matter of fact the
duality of Zola's nature was always appearing. He was for
ever straying beyond the limits of the doctrines he pro-
pounded, having quaffed too deeply of Hugo's rhetoric in his
youth to be able to restrain himself. And it was as well,
perhaps, to show that even at this early stage of his great
series, his vagaries, his deviations from his self-chosen
principles, already attracted attention.

It was also apropos of this same " Ventre de Paris/' that
the first of many charges of plagiarism was preferred against
Zola. In this instance it was M, Nadar, photographer,
aeronaut, caricaturist, and author, who declared that " the
colour scale " of the sea of vegetables which Zola showed
spreading around the Paris markets had been borrowed
from something which he, Nadar, had written. But Zola
had merely expanded a passage of one of his own early
articles; and the suggestion of plagiarism was the more
ridiculous as the first thing which strikes anybody, even
with only a little artistic perception, when witnessing day-
break at the Paris markets, is the diversity of the picture's

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

hues, the great medley of colour gradually accentuated by
the light of the rising sun. M* Nadar probably realised
that Ms wntatttaon could not be regarded seriously. At all
events the matter dropped, and Zola turned to Ms next
volume, * La Conqufete de Plassans," as weU as to a new
play, a three-act comedy, which he entitled " Les H&itiers
B&bourdin^

Meantime, it had occurred to Flaubert to unite his
intimates in a monthly dinner, which, said he, might be
called **the Dinner of the Hissed Authors," He himself
had been hissed for his pky, "Le Candidat," Zola had
encountered a similar experience with "Th&fese Raquin,"
Alphonse Daudet with * L'AriMenne," and Edmond de
Goncottrt with " Henrietta Mwr^chaL** Tourgeneff, also, was
admitted to tibia company on the strength of his asser-
tion that he had been hissed in Russia ; but, according to
Daudet, when Emfte de Giraxdin, hearing of the project,
wished to join the others — pleading, no doubt, the recep-
tion given to the notorious a Supplice d'une Femme " — they
promptly blackballed him on the ground that he was not
a imratew.1

Thanks to the wine provided at those monthly dinners,
they were livelier, though perhaps not more interesting,
than the Sunday meetings in Flaubert's rooms. They took
place at various restaurants, the first at the Caf£ Eiche,
on April 14, 18742 Then, as Flaubert was starting for Le
Croisset, near Eouen, the next was adjourned till the winter

1 Alplionse Baudot's "Trenteans de Paris," 1888. There are numerous
discrepancies in the accounts which. Daudet, Zola, and Goncourt have left of
some of these dinners ; but the author has endeavoured to give a general idea
of them.

3 "Journal des Gonoourt," Yol. V, p. 17S.

Photo by Nadar

fimile Zola, 1876-1880

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 145

months. As Zola tells us, during the years over which
these dinners were spread, the choice of a restaurant for
the next repast invariably led to great discussion among
the five convives. Anxious apparently to sample every
kind of cuisine, they went from the Cafd Riche to Voisin's
in the Rue St. Honor4 ; from Voisin's to Adolphe and Pel#s
near the Grand Opera House, and thence to the Byron
on the Place de TOp^ra Comique. They feasted now on
TxwillabaisBe, now on poulet aw kari. Tourgeneff naturally
required caviar to whet his appetite ; Flaubert always in-
sisted on having Normandy butter, and revelled in Rouen
ducklings & FUouffade ; while Goncourt evinced a depraved
taste for preserved ginger. As for Zola, he, according to
Alphonse Daudet, was addicted to shellfish and sea-urchins j
His friends occasionally twitted him respecting the par-
tiality he began to evince for good fare, — which cast, they
said, a lurid light on his novel, "Le Ventre de Paris'* —
and he frankly acknowledged his gourmandise3 pleading,
however, that it was his only vice, and that he had gone
hungry so many years!

Of course there was no ceremony at those monthly dinners.
Flaubert and Zola often took off their coats and sat down
at table "in their shirt-sleeves," as the phrase goes, while
between the courses Tourgeneff would sprawl on a sofa.
And directly the coffee was served the waiters were turned
out of the room, and a long discussion on literary subjects
began, that is when it had not been started already at the
outset of the repast " I remember," wrote Zola, in his recol-
lections of Flaubert,1 "a terrible discussion on Chateau-
briand, which lasted from seven in the evening till one

1 Zola's " Les Romaaciers Natuialistes," p. 181*
10

146 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

o'clock in the morning. flaubert and Daudet defended him,

Tourgeneff and I attacks! Mm, while Gkmconrt remained
nenteaL At other times we took np the subject of the pas-
sions, talked of women and love, and on those occasions the
waiters looked at us aghast Then, as Flaubert detested
haying to walk home alone, I accompanied him through the
dark streets, and did not get to bed till three o'clock in the
morning, for we halted at the corner of every open space to
philosophise."

Meantime the Sunday gatherings at Flaubert's had become
far less gloomy. The author of "Madame Bovary" had
gradually accustomed himself to the new order of things,
and when he removed from the Rue Murillo to the Fau-
bourg St. Hotter^, a number of admirers surrounded him, as
well as his half-dozen chosen intimatea1 On some occar
sions as many as twenty visitors assembled in his half-
furnished white and gold drawing-room, which from three
till six o'clock became full of tobacco-smoke, everybody
except Zola freely indulging in pipe, cigar, or cigarette. He
had ceased smoking under compulsion, in his days of dire
necessity, and though no such compulsion existed now, even
Flaubert seldom succeeded in forcing a pipe upon him.

In his account of those Sunday gatherings, he allows us
to understand that the speech often suggested the style of
Eabelais, perhaps even of Villon, that spades were called
plumply spades, which will not surprise those who know
the Cambronnesc[ue epithet that Flaubert — the stylist —

1 JUexis mentions among the frequent yisitors whom he met there : Fran-
90k Copped, Catulle Mended, Maurice Boucher, Philippe Burty, J. K. Hnys-
mans, Hemi Ce*ard, Marios Beta, L^on Hennique, Bergerat, Toudouze* Dr.
Pouchet, and Charpentier, the publisher. At internals came Taine, Renan,
Maximo Ihicamp, and Maurice Sand.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 147

applied to Ms own work, ** Madame Bovary," in his anger
and weariness at being incessantly complimented on it.
For the rest, Zola tells ns that the company " rattled through
every subject, always reverting to literature, to the book or
the play of the hour, or to some general question or venture-
some theory ; but, at the same time, excursions were made
into every field, and neither men nor things were spared.
Flaubert thundered, Tourgeneff told stories of exquisite
originality and savour, Goncourt pronounced judgment on
one matter and another with all his shrewdness and per-
sonal style of phraseology. Then Daudet acted his anecdotes
in that charming manner of his, which made him the best
of companions ; while as for myself I did not shine at all,
for I am a very poor conversationalist, and only worth any-
thing when I feel a deep conviction on some subject, and
fly into a passion."

To some of the aforementioned gatherings and dinners
it will be necessary to refer again in the course of this
narrative. What has been set down here will, however,
indicate the nature of the companionship which came to
Zola as he toiled along the path leading to success. He had
not shaken off his old friends, he still gave his weekly
dinners which one or another — Alexis, Marius Roux, Coste,
Duranty, and B£Uard, the painter, — attended, though some
began to fall out of the ranks, carried hither and thither
by their private interests. Meantime, he worked very
zealously. In 1874, he completed his story, " La Conqu§te
de Plassans," — the fourth volume of the Rougon-Macquart
series — and ran it through " Le S&cle " as a serial When
it was published, soon afterwards, in volume form by
Oharpentier, there was a sufficient demand to justify the

148 IMBUE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMER

printing of a second edition of this tale of priestly intrigue
in public and prorate lifa1

But Zola's eyes were still turned towards the stage,
partly because he desired to apply certain theories to play-
writing, and partly because he knew that the successful
dramatist advanced far more rapidly than the successful
novelist along the path to fortune. Thus, having finished
Ms three-act comedy, "Les H^ritiers Kabourdin/*'2 in which
the gruesome was mingled with the farcical, he offered it to
the Palais Eoyal Theatre. But the manager of that house
only cared for amusing plays free from all lugubrious taint,
his chief author being Labiche, whose name was synony-
mous with unadulterated merriment ; so Zola soon carried his
manuscript to M. Montjgny of the Gymnase. Writing on
July 23, 1874, to Ms friend and publisher, M. Charpentier, he
gave the following account of the issue of his endeavours : —

aMy negotiations with Moniagny have fallen through. He
haaded me book my manuscript in the most charming manner,
vowing that he had a keen desire to stage a play of mine. He
eren gare me my mtrees to the Gymnase, by way of consolation,
no doubt. Briefly, my play frightened him, but it is certain that
he long hesitated about it, and that the doors of his theatre will
be open to me if I only undertake * to be good/ As soon as my
manuscript was returned to me I was eager to carry it elsewhere.
Decidedly, it is a disease ; one wants to be 4 played/ whatever
may be the chances. The only thing left for me to do was to
knock at the door of the Theatre de Cluny. I went there.
And, yesterday, Weinschenk [the manager] accepted my play.
It will pass before Flaubert's,* about the middle of September,

1 "La Oonqti$te de Plassans/* 1st and 2d editions: Paris, Charpentier,
1874, 18mo, 406 pages ; 3d edition, 1876, 402 pages ," thirty-fourth thou-
sand on sale in 1003.

2 See ante, p. 144.

8 TMi was a play called " Le Sexe Faible,Jr which Flaubert had agreed to

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 149

heaven knows under what conditions, for the company frightens
me terribly. But what would you have had me do I I had no
alternative, I had to go to that galley to ensure myself some
little peace of mind. It would have rendered me so unhappy to
have left the manuscript lying in a drawer.13

The Theatre de Cluny was then a third or fourth rate
little house in the Quartier Latin, and Zola's fears respecting
its company were fully justified. To give an idea of the
fate which befell his play it will be enough to mention that
one of the " parts," that of Chapuzot, an octogenarian, was
confided to a young fellow named Olona, who in his efforts
to imitate an old man's voice ended by speaking like a
"Punch." Nevertheless, there was no hissing at the first
performance which was delayed until the 3d of November
(1874); the demeanour of the audience being rather one
of bewilderment, particularly when in the third act illness
and death suddenly intruded into the midst of farce. But
the critics did not hesitate. They damned the play even as
they had damned "Th&&se Kaquin," "Le Figaro" curtly
declaring that it was repulsive, tiresome, and immoral;
and after seventeen performances, given to well-nigh empty
houses, except on Sundays When the shopkeepers and
working-people of the district attended and laughed good-
naturedly, 1 " Les H^ritiers Eabourdin " disappeared from
the stage without hope of revival.

But this was not Zola's only work during the year 1874
He had now moved from the Rue de La Condamine to
21, Rue St. Georges (now Rue des Apennins) at Batignolles.

supply to the The&tre de Cluny, but before doing so he read it to his
intimates, who gave it so unfavourable a reception that he renounced all idea
of having it performed.
1 Alexis, L c,, p. 139.

150 •ftMTTjR ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEEOEMER

Hero again, unlike most Parisians, who live in flats, lie had
a house to himself, with a garden, both considerably larger
than the previous ones. In the Eue de La Condamine he
himself had attended to his garden, made a kennel for his
dog, erected his own fowl and rabbit houses — for he was
sMlful with his hands — just like any other modestly cir-
cumstanced dweller in Suburbia. But in the Eue St.
Geoiges his prosperity increased, and instead of employing
a mere fm,me-de-mlnage to help his wife in the housework,
he was soon able to engage two servants, man and wife.

His increased prosperity was due to the good offices of
his friend, Ivan Tourgeneff, who took no little interest in
him. At this time Zola no longer wrote political articles
for the Paris press, for editors deemed his pen too violent ;
and as he also carried revolutionary methods into literary
discussion, he was unable to find in France any satisfactory
outlet either for certain critical studies on eminent writers
which he had often thought of undertaking, or for any
adequate expression of his theories respecting fiction. In
these circumstances Tourgeneff recommended him to a St.
Petersburg review, the " Viestnik Yevropi," otherwise " The
European Messenger." To this periodical Zola became a
regular and well-paid contributor for several years. The
essays and short stories which he wrote for it were natu-
rally translated into Eussian, in which language they be-
came known long before the French text was printed.

It was also this Eussian review that first issued "La
Faute de FAbb4 Mouret/* the fifth instalment of the
"Eougon-Macquarts" and one of the most romantic of all
Zola's novels. He wrote it in the Eue St. Georges in the
summer of 1874, after arranging for the publication in

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 151

book form of ten short stories which he had contributed
during recent years to newspapers, almanacs, and other
periodicals. The little volume was called "Nouveaiix
Contes h Ninon,n and the reception given to it by both the
critics and the public was distinctly encouraging.1 The
former, however, cold-shouldered "La Faute de FAbb4
Mouret," which was published by Charpentier in 1875,
though this was the first of Zola's novels that reached, not
a great sale certainly, but one which may fairly be called
considerable for that period. In 1876 a sixth edition of it
was reached, followed by another in the ensuing year.1

When " Abb4 Mouret " was placed on the market, Zola,
who seldom if ever rested, was already working on his next
book, " Son Excellence Eugfene Eougon," in which he dealt
with the political side of the Second Empire and sketched
the life of the Imperial Court at Compi&gne. Some years
previously, in 1865, when he was writing for "LTEv&ae-
ment," that journal had published a series of articles
signed "D," chronicling the imperial sojourn at Com-
pi&gne ; and these had been collected in a volume to which
the fanciful subtitle of " Confidences d'un Valet de Cham-
bre"8 was given, though, in point of fact, the author was

1 "Nouveaux Contes & Ninon," 1st and 2d editions, Paris, Charpentier,
1874, 18mo, 311 pages, 3d edition, 1877 ; new editions containing the Roiagon-
Macquart genealogical tree, in 1878 and 1881 ,* new edition, including 14 tales
and sketches, in 1885 et seq. ; ditto, 32mo, with 2 etchings, 1885 ; Con-
quet* s edition, etched frontispiece and 30 vignettes, 2 vols., sm. 8ro, 1886.

2 "LaFante del'Abbe' Monret," 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th editions, Paris,
Charpentier, 1875, 18mo, 432 pages ; 5th and 6th editions, 1876 ; 7th,
428 pages, 1877 ; fifty-second thousand on sale in 1$03. Of kte years eighty
thousand copies have been sold of an illustrated edition in the " Collection
Guillaume."

8 "La Cour a Compiegne, Confidences d'un Valet de Chambre," Paris,
Likairie du Petit Journal, 1866. 18mo, 303 pages. In E. A. Vizetelly's in-

152 &MILB ZOLJL, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

simply a journalist, recommended by Th^ophile Gautier for
the express purpose of reporting the doings of the court
during its mUeffmtura> and in that way refuting the thou-
sand rumours of indescribable orgies at Compi&gne, which
circulated among the more credulous Parisians. From the
record in question, a very accurate one, Zola, who, of course
had never been a guest at Compi&gne, derived considerable
information, but sundry critics, unacquainted with the
tenth, twitted him for having placed reliance on back-stairs
gossip, when in reality he had taken as his guide statements
issued with the Emperor's express approval.

But further information was given him by Flaubert, who
had visited Compifegne more than once as a court guest.
And Goncourt tells us that Flaubert, when questioned by
Zola, proceeded to mimic the kte sovereign in characteristic
fwMon, walking up and down with his figure bent, resting
one hand on Ms back, and twirling his moustache with the
other, while mumbling idiotic remarks. "Napoleon III,"
added Flaubert, by way of comment, "was unadulter-
ated stupidity"; to which proposition Goncourt retorted,
wittily and with great truth, that stupidity was usually
loquacious, whereas the Emperor's had been silent stupidity.
**It was that which made his strength, it allowed one to
suppose everything." 1 No better judgment than this was
ever passed on Napoleon III. For twenty years the world
regarded him as "deep," though, in reality, he was in
many respects a fool, one who would never even have

twxinetion to the English yersion of ** Son Excellence Eugene Rongon " ( " His
IbcceBeBcy," London, Cnatto, and !N"ew York, Macmillan, 1897 d seq.)t it is
stated in error that the articles first appealed in "Le Figaro/' whereas it was
the latter*® companion-print, ** L^venement," which issued them,
i « JotumL dtes Gonconrt," YoL Y, p. 100 (March 7, 1875),

tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 153

reigned over France had it not been for the energy and
acumen of his bastard half-brother, the Duke de Horny.

Apropos of the latter, Goncourt mentions that one day
when Alphonse Daudet, who had been in the Duke's em-
ployment, was giving various particulars about him, Zola
expressed a keen regret that he had not possessed this
information in time to use it in w Son Excellence,** which con-
tains but a very imperfect sketch of Horny under the name
of Marsy. In a discussion which ensued, Zola evinced great
eagerness to put everything into his books — that is every-
thing he learnt which might be germane to his subjects and
likely to cast light upon them. On the whole, however,
he was far less "personal" than Daudet. Both in "Son
Excellence Eug&ne Eougon " and in his later novel, " Paris,**
although many of the characters suggested well-known
people, almost every one of them was a blend, so to say, of
three or four originals, whereas Daudet, sketching his
characters from the life, often modified them so little that
those who knew their Paris could not regard some of his
books otherwise than as pillories.

The writing of " Son Excellence Eugene Eougon " proved
a somewhat laborious task for Zola, the period selected for the
story being largely antecedent to his participation in news-
paper life, from which he had learnt so much both politically
and socially. And his desire to be scrupulously accurate in
all essential particulars led him to undertake a variety of
fatiguing researches. Hard work, indeed excessive work,
for he wrote regularly for the Kussian review, and penned
some Parisian correspondence every day for "Le Semaphore"
of Marseilles, besides proceeding with his novel, again re-
duced him to a nervous condition, and one day, when he

154 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE

w&s with Gcmeourt and others, he complained that while he
wrote he often fancied he could see mice scampering about
Mm, or birds flying away on one hand or the other. That
spring (1875) others also felt " run down/' as the saying
goes. Tourgeneff, for instance, complained of his nerves,
aad Flaubert was haunted by the idea that there was always
somebody behind him while he worked.1

At last, when the summer came and his book was finished,
Zola resolved to seek a change, though not absolute rest, for
idleness was repugnant to him* His circumstances had
now greatly improved; M. Charpentier had torn up the
original agreement for the Eougon-Macquart series, and
opened has cash-box, and Zola had at last liquidated the
liabilities which he had incurred by the failure of Lacroix.
So, with his wife and mother, he betook himself to a little
Norman watering-place, Si Aubin-sur-Mer, lying between
the mouth of the Ome and the Calvados rocks, and reached,
in those days, by coach from Caen.

It was the*e, as Alexis relates, that he planned his next
book, "L'Assommoir," the idea of which had occurred to him
before his departure from Paris. In Ms previous volumes
he had dealt with the Imperial Court, the Parisian society,
the political world, the provincial life, the clerical intrigues
of the Second Empire, and it was only in " Le Ventre de
Paris " that he had cast some side-lights upon the working
class of the capital. They, however, deserved an entire
volume to themselves, and Zola felt that he could write one,
based largely on his own personal knowledge of their habits
and customs ; for in his days of poverty he had dwelt among
them at Montrouge, and in the Eue St Jacques, and again
i " Journal to Goaccmrt," ToL Y, p. 202 (April 25, 1875),

£lIILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 155

on the Boulevard H ontparnasse. Besides what he had writ-
ten about them in a few newspaper articles or short stories,
such as **Le Chomage," "Hon voisin Jacques" and wLe
Forgeron," l which will be found in the " Nouveaux Contes k
Ninon," he remembered a great many things, funerals, fes-
tivities, and junketings. He had discovered, too, a suitable
title — " L'Assommoir " — in Alfred Delvau's slang diction-
ary, and it was this circumstance which, when he had written
two chapters of the book in his usual style, suddenly in-
spired him with the idea of penning it in the real vernacular
of the Parisian masses, not the special slang of thieves and
prostitutes, such as Eugfcne Sue had employed, and, in part>
invented, in "Les Mystferes de Paris," but in the current
langage populaire, understood by everybody.2

It was during Zola's stay at St. Aubin, face to face with
the sea, — whose influence was not lost upon him for, as
will be shown, it suggested in part a later work, "La Joie de
Vivre," — that he mapped out this book on the Parisian pro-
Utaire, which was to raise him to fame ; and Alexis tells us
that though he already had the chief scenes of the story in
his mind he was for a time at a loss for a suitable intrigue
which would weld them well together. The idea of taking
a girl of the people, who stumbles and has two children by
her seducer, then marries another man, establishes herself in
business by dint of hard work, but is borne down by the
conduct of her husband, who becomes a drunkard, had pre-
viously occurred to him, figuring, indeed, in the original
genealogical tree which he had drawn up for hia series, but

1 In "Le Foigeron" one will find the first idea of Goujet of "L'Assom-
moir " ; while " Mon voisin Jacques " is the original of Bazouge, the mute,
a Alexis, Z. c., p, 109.

156 &MHJB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

he felt that the husband's drunkenness might not fully
account for the wife's downfall, and he remained at a loss
how to proceed until, all at once, he was inspired to "bring
the woman's seducer back into her home. That would
make everything possible, and he decided to model his story
accordingly.

He busied himself with *' L'Assommoir " on his return to
Paris in the autumn, and arranged for the " serialisation " of
his completed novel, * Son Excellence Eug&ne Rougon," in
"Le Si&cle" early in the following year, 1876.1 He was
then in high spirits. ** Fortune/' he said to Edmond de
Goncourt, " was at last finding its way to his home." In-
deed, a stroke of luck had befallen him, A daily evening
paper, *<Le Bien Public/* had appointed Mm its dramatic
critic at a salary of six thousand francs a year. This journal
had been started with the support of Thiers, since whose
resignation of the presidency of the Republic in 1873 France
had been governed in a reactionary spirit by MacMahon's
ministers. During that troublous period " Le Bien Public,"
whose connection with Thiers was well known, rendered
good service to the Republican cause, first rallying
many hesitating people, then becoming more and more
democratic, and helping on that alliance of the middle class
and the prol&tariat which saved France from monarchical
intrigues and resulted in MacMahon's downfall. Zola was
delighted to join the paper, particularly as it allowed him
all freedom in his dramatic criticisms, which were written
in his usual trenchant style. Of course he had to give to

1 A little later it was issued in "book form : " Son Excellence Eugene
Boogon," Paris, Cnarpentier, 1876, 18mo, 466 pages. The demand was smaller
than tbat for tne previous volume, " La Faute de TAbbe* Mouret" ; and in
1903 only tibe thirty-sixth thousand was on sale*

fiMILB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEE 157

them some of the time he had hitherto allotted to his books,
but he was not afraid of additional work, particularly when
it was of a nature to bring him nearer to the Parisian stage,
on which, in spite of every rebuff, he still dreamt of triumph-
ing. Moreover, the increase in his income was very wel-
come ; with the salaries he received from " Le Bien Public **
and "Le Semaphore" — for which, he still wrote — the pro-
ceeds of his contributions to the Russian review, which
some months amounted to eight hundred francs, and the
money accruing from his books, Hs income, in the early
part of 1876, before the serial publication of " L'Assommoir,"
represented quite twenty-five thousand francs, and perhaps
thirty thousand francs a year.1 But he decided to offer his
new story to "Le Bien Public"; and that he could now
command good terms is shown by the fact that the paper
agreed to pay Mm ten thousand francs for the serial rights
without even seeing his manuscript, which, by the way, was
not ready, though he had given information respecting the
subject he meant to treat.

The serial issue began in June (1876) and there was an
immediate outcry. Whatever might be thought of Zola's
novels in book form, they were not liked by the news-
paper readers of those days ; and, in the case of " L' Assom-
moir," there were not only complaints of immorality, but
the author was accused, ludicrously enough, of slandering
the masses, insulting the working classes. The latter charge
alarmed the director of "Le Bien Public" far more than
the first did. Important political issues were then at stake,
and it was essential that the working-man should not be
offended ! Of course people judged the story merely by

i From £1,000 to £1,200, or from about $5,000 to $$,000.

158 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE

the instalments as tibtj appeared, and these as yet gave
little indication of what it would be when completed. Thus
a very narrow view was taken by some readers, while others
were more particularly horrified by the slang in which the
work abounded, complaining notably of its appearance, not
only in the dialogue but in the descriptive and narrative
passages, into which Zola had introduced it with the ex-
press object of suggesting that this was a story of the masses
told by one of themselves. Briefly, in all respects, the
outcry became so great that in July the director of "Le
Bien Public" decided to cease publication* Nevertheless,
the paper honestly paid Zola the full amount specified in
the agreement

At this moment M. Catixlle Mend&s again came to the
rescue, and, for a nominal sum, a thousand francs or so,
Zola handed Mia the remainder of his manuscript for pub-
lication in a La E4publique des Lettres * ; then, leaving his
Hterwy bombshell to complete its work, betook himself to
Piriac, on the Breton coast, between Vannes and St. Nazaire,
for a holiday. In Paris the periodical edited by M. Mend&s
suddenly leaped into notoriety. It supplied the latter part
of " L'Assommoir'* gratuitously to those subscribers of "Le
Bien Public " who desired to read it ; but at the same time
its sales increased largely, for so much was said about this
extraordinary story, so violent were the attacks upon it,
that many, who as yet had seen nothing of it, wished to
ascertain its character and form their own opinions.

Amid all the hubbub, a well-known Parisian journalist of
that period, Tony KMllon, who had catered for the working
classes since the latter years of the Empire, meeting Paul
Alexis one day in the autumn, said to him : " Tell Zola to

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEE 159

make Ms mind easy. His book will sell like hot cakea „ . ,
' L'Assommoir * will be a wonderful success/*

In a pecuniary sense, such was indeed the case directly
1£ Charpentier published the book in 1877.1 Of the ordi-
nary edition fifty thousand copies — a very large figure for
those days — were soon sold, and at the end of 1879, eighty
thousand had been disposed of ; these being independent of
a " popular " illustrated edition, issued in fifty-nine " parts *
at ten centimes apiece, forty thousand copies of which were
disseminated chiefly among the Parisian working classes
(whom the story was said to libel) in the course of 1878
alone. From 1877 onward an unexampled controTersy
raged round the book as well as round Zola's principles and
methods generally — a controversy to which additional zest
was imparted both by a dramatic adaptation of the story,
which drew all Paris to the Theatre de TAmbigu, and by
the publication in French of some of the articles on French
literature and literary men which Zola had written for the
Kussian review. More fuel was added to the fire by a
pamphlet he penned and called " la Edpublique fran§aise
et la Literature," and by a series of papers he contributed
to " Le Voltaire " and collected a little later under the title
of "Le Eoman Experimental." Wherever one went in
Paris one heard allusion to or discussion of Zola* "I/As-
sommoir," and " naturalism." The newspapers were full of
articles: the author was attacked by such men as Henri

* " L'Assommoir," Paris, Charpentier, 1877, 18mo, 573 pages ; one hun-
dred and twenty-seventh thousand on sale in 1893 when the Eougon-Macquart
series was completed ; one hundred and fifty-first thousand reached in 1903.
Illustrated edition : Paris, Marpon and Ilammarion, 1878, large 8vo, title, 466
pages, with 62 wood engravings after Gill, Clalrin, Leloir, etc. Issued origi-
nally in parts (see above), the volume was priced at 6 francs. It has "been
frequently reprinted.

160 JaEOUE ZQLAf NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Fouquier in **Le XIX* Si&cle,n Francisque Sarcey in "Le
Temp/1 Jules Claretie in "La Presse," Gaucher in "La
Revue Bleue.** " La Revue de France " joined in the hos-
tile chorus and so, too, did the Olympian "Revue des
Deux Mondes w ; while * La Vie litt&raire " and " La Jeune
Fmnce * joined " La R^publique des Lettres w in defending
the much-abused author.

But pamphlets also rained upon Paris ; there was " Zola,
Pape et CMsar," by Madame Arnault ; " Monsieur Zola/* by
"Papa Cadet "; a * Petit Trait^ de Literature Naturaliste,"
by "Camille B." and Albert Vanier; " Naturalisme ou
R&lisme," by F. de Bus ; * M. Zola et son Assommoir," by
Fr&Mric Erbs; "Apropos de FAssommoir,19 by Edouard
Rod, and several others* But mere pamphlets did not
suffice ; there eame ** poems " like ** En r'venant d' TAssom-
rndtr,^ by (Mipaux ; parodies like " L'Assommoir du Cirque
FmncOTii * and * L'Assommoir pour rire " by Blondelet and
Beatraaaine ; and finally there were lectures both against
Zola and in defence of him, the most notable of the latter,
one which particularly angered both the conservative critics
and the sensitive Parnassians, being delivered by M. L^on
Hennique in the Salle des Conferences on the Boulevard
des Capucines,

To a few of the matters enumerated above, the production
of " L'Assommoir " as a play, and the publication in volume
form of some of Zola's literary papers, it will be necessary
to refer again in following the thread of this narrative ; but
they have been mentioned here in order that the reader may
at once form some idea of the sensation which the appear-
ance of "L'Assommoir" caused, first in the literary world
of Paris, whence it spread throughout the reading public.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORHEB 161

In the literary annals of France, 1876, 1877, and 1878 must
always rank as the years of "L'Assommoir." Yet they
were by no means barren in other respects. They cover the
period when Victor Hngo published, not only a new series of
" La L<$gende des S&cles," but also «* I/Art d'etre Grandpfere "
and " L'Histoire d'un Crime" And other poets were raising
their voices : Leconte de lisle was issuing his translation of
Sophocles, Mallarm4 his " Aprfes-midi d'un Faune," Dierx his
"Amants," Anatole France his "Nooes Corinthiennes,**
Eichepin his " Chanson des Gueux.w And fiction, as usual,
poured from the printing presses of France. Flaubert's
" Trois Contes " ; Daudet's " Jack " and " Le KTabab " ; Gon-
court's "La Fille Elisa"; Octave Feuillet's "Amours de
Philippe " ; George Sand's last stories, * La Tour de Perce-
mont" and "Marianne"; Ferdinand Fabre's best book,
"L'Abb£ Tigrane," were then first offered to the reading
public. And going further afield one finds " Le Train 17 "
and ** La Maison Vide," by Jules Claretie ; " Les Batailles du
Manage " and " Sans Famille," by Hector Malot ; " Samuel
Brohl," by Cherbuliez; "Kaymonde," by Andr4 Theuriet;
" Michel Strogoff," by Jules Verne ; " L*Homme de la Croix-
aux-Bceufs," by L^on Cladel, also appearing at this time.
But none of these, and indeed, briefly, no novel, or play, or
poem, or historical or philosophical work of the time stands
forth conspicuously, preeminently, as " L'A&sommoir " does,
to give its name to the date, to mark the period, to indicate
a climax or an evolution in French literature.

Before " L'Assommoir," the critics had often treated
Zola's books and theories with silent contempt, but they
could do so no longer. They were at last compelled to
recognise that a new force had arisen, and that they must

162 tMJLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER

be up and doing If they wished to prevent it from gaining
the mastery. As happens at every literary evolution, as was
the case when the Romantic supplanted the Classic school,
all the older men, and, indeed, nearly all of any age who had
acquired a recognised position, were against Zola, his adher-
ents being mostly young writers whose positions were not
yet made. It has been mentioned that some of the friends
of his youth and early manhood had dropped away from
him, in a measure by the force of circumstances. But " Le
Ventre de Paris " and " I/Assommoir " brought him others,
and in particular there were five young men of great promise
who, for a time, became known as his "band." Taking
them by order of seniority, one may place first the ever-
faithful Paul Alexis, a Provencal, in 1877 thirty years of
age. Second came Joris Karl Huysmans, a Parisian of
Dutch origin, nine and twenty years old, and already the
author of a volume of prose poems suggestive of Baudelaire,
and a novel, " Marthe." Next there was Guy de Maupas-
sant, a Norman, seven and twenty, introduced to Zola by
their mutual friend and master, Flaubert; then Henri
C£ard, a thoroughbred Parisian, six and twenty, who without
introduction had called upon Zola one Sunday to tell him
that he had read his books and admired them ; and, finally,
L6on Hennique, a native of G-uadeloupe, who numbered but
five and twenty years against the seven and thirty which
Zola completed at the time when his first great book was
published.1

1 To the information given above it may be added that Alexis's first note-
worthy work was a play, "Celle qu'on n'epouse pas" (Gymnase, 1879) fol-
lowed by "La Mn de Lucie Pellegrin," a novel, 1880. Maupassant's first
prose volume was "La Maison Tellier," 1881, following one of verses, 1880,
Ceard's first novel was "Une Belle Journ^e," 1880; and Hennique's "La

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 163

Every Thursday, for some years, those five young men,
two of whom, Maupassant and Huysmans, afterwards rose
to eminence, visited Zola and talked " literature " with him,
even as on Sundays he and they visited Gustave Flaubert.
The latter, amid all the hubbub and controversy pro-
voked by " L'Assommoir," felt that Zola was going too far,
at least farther than he, Flaubert, would have gone. He
always underrated his own realism — or naturalism, if one
prefer that term — as displayed in "Madame Bovary," as
well as his own philosophy, outlined in " I/Education senti-
mentale " and " La Tentation de St. Antoine " ; and if Zola's
account of him be accurate, his one ambition was to be
known and remembered as a stylist, a master of impeccable
French. He even denied that " Madame Bovary " marked
any evolution in fiction, he shut his eyes to the deductions
which others drew from it, and thus, when he found himself
confronted by Zola's venturesome theories, he was at first at
a loss to account for them. In one sense his astonishment
was amusing : it suggested the surprise of the cause at the
sight of so remarkable an effect. But if he twitted Zola
about his naturalist professions of faith he did so, as
Goncourt observes, " avec de trks grands coups de chapeau "
for he fully recognised the ability of the man who claimed
to be his disciple. One thing which he did not like was
the eagerness with which Zola accepted controversy and
proclaimed his doctrines on all possible occasions, for this
seemed to be too suggestive of self-advertisement.

Devoue*e," 1878. Both the latter as well as Alexis may "be best classed as
playwrights, their later and principal literary work having "been done for the
stage. Like Maupassant and Huysmans, however, they contributed with
Zola to " Les Soirees de Medan/' 1880, which will be noticed in its proper
place.

164 iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Zola, however, replied very naturally, frankly, and boldly,
that he, Flaubert, possessed a small fortune and was there-
fore able to disregard all sorts of considerations, whereas he,
Zola, had been obliged to earn his living by his pen and
undertake at times all kinds of writing, even contemptible
work. " What I write," he added, " may be divided into
two parts. There are my books, by which I am judged,
and by which I desire to be judged; and there are my
critical notices in *Le Bien Public/ my Russian articles,
and my correspondence for Marseilles which I regard as of
no account, which I reject, and which I only undertake in
order to help on my books. I first placed a nail in position
and with the stroke of a hammer I drove it half an inch
into the brain of the public, then with a second blow I
drove it in an inch* Well, my hammer is the newspaper
work which I myself do round^my own books."1

Nothing could have been more frank than this, not even
his remark on the same occasion — in reply evidently to
some criticism of Flaubert's, which Goncourt does not
exactly specify, — that he cared not a rap for the word
" naturalism/3 and yet intended to repeat it, because things
required christening in order that the public might regard
them as new.2 In all this one traces the determination to
succeed at any cost, the fighting spirit which had prompted
Zola to write to Antony Valabrfegue, more than ten years
previously, that he belonged to an impatient age, that if he
did not trample others under foot they would pass over him,
and that he did not desire to be crushed by fools. Thus,
whatever might be his contempt for the weapons of his time

1 " Journal des Goncourt," Vol. V, pp. 314-315.

3 It is probable that Flaubert had. questioned the novelty of "Naturalism."

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMEB, 165

— advertisement and pushfulness — lie readily made use of
them, feeling that if lie neglected to do so, amid all the
stress, all the fierce competition around him, he might well
go under and fail to reach the goal, in spite of the talent of
which he was conscious. The battle of the age was the
keenest there had ever been, a man could only triumph
by incessantly thrusting himself forward, and Zola, for his
part, did so without hesitation.

VII

THE ADVANCE OF NATUEALISM

1877-1881

*' "One Page d* Amour " — The portrayal of Love — Zola buys a house at M6dan

— His play, ** Le Bouton de Rose " — He is accused of stealing the plot
of c< line Page d' Amour " — He attacks contemporary French novelists —
Opinions of Feuillet and Dumas fils on Zola — "The Republic and Litera-
ture " — Zola and the Legion of Honour — Flaubert and " Bouvard " —
A Cabinet Council negatives the decoration of Zola — " L'Assommoir " as
a play — Zola and Mr. George Moore — The effect of affluence on Zola

— The transformation of M&lan — Zola's studies — Humanitarianism
enters into his literary conceptions — Scientific fiction and its aim —
Preparations for "ISTana" — La Palva — The courtesans of the Second
Empire — }" Nana " is published in " Le Yoltaire " — The facial mask of
small-pox — "JSTana" as a book — Idealism and Naturalism: attractive
and repulsive vice — " Les Soirees de Medan" — Maupassant's **Boule de
Suif " — Hereditary insanity and strong passions — Death of Gustave Flau-
bert— Zola's essay on Flaubert — Death of Zola's mother — His campaign
in "lie Figaro" — His attack on Hugo's "L'Ane" — He assails Gara-
betta — His article on " Drunken Slaves " and defence of " L'Assommoir "

— " Kana " as a play — Leontine Massin plays Nana in real life as well as
on the stage — Zola's "Romanciers Faturalistes," "Documents Litt<§-
raires," " Naturalisme au Theatre " and "Auteurs Dramatiques" — His
life of unflagging industry.

AT an early period of the controversies provoked by " L' As-
sommoir/* that is when its publication had been transferred
to "Le Bien Public," Zola quitted Paris for L'Estaque, a
tiny village nestling below precipitous mountains on the
shore of the Golfe des Crottes, beyond which spreads the
Mediterranean, with the various islands, including the
Chateau d'lf of « Monte Cristo," which mark the approach
to the port of Marseilles. In this quiet retreat, where life
among the tunny-fishers was rather primitive, the novelist

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER 167

began to write " Une Page d' Amour," which he had planned
before leaving Paris. Edmond de Goncourt mentions an
amusing discussion started by Zola, apropos of this book, at
a dinner given to Tourgeneff, who was leaving for Eussia.
Love, in Zola's opinion, did not master one so absolutely as
some pretended ; and, said he, phenomena similar to those
which might be observed in love were also to be found in
friendship and patriotism. Tor his part, he had never been
madly in love, and therefore found it difficult to depict such
a state of things in others. Flaubert and Goncourt admitted
a similar incapacity, arising from the same cause, and it was
agreed that the only one of the party whom experience
might have qualified to portray the great passion adequately,
was Tourgeneff, who, however, was unfortunately deficient
in the necessary critical sense.

The question whether Zola's portrayal of love in "Une
Page d' Amour" was adequate is certainly open to doubt;
and whatever the power and beauty of the book's pictures
of Paris, as viewed from the Trocad^ro, at sunrise, at sun-
down, at night, in a storm, and under the snow, one may
demur to the often expressed opinion that they were the
best he ever limned. They doubtless cost him an effort, but
after the great labour which the writing of " L'Assommoir "
had involved, " Une Page d* Amour," with its few characters
and its narrow scope of action, was almost a restful book.
It should be observed, indeed, that Zola seldom penned two
great panoramic works in succession. His own explana-
tion of the course he took in writing such comparatively
quiet books as " Une Page d' Amour," " La Joie de Vivre "
and "Le K§ve" between works of crowded incident like
«L'Assommoir,""Nana,"" Germinal," "La Terre," and "La

168 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

B§te Humaine," was that he wished to diversify his series
as much as possible; but it is also certain that he often
found it necessary to husband his energies, to allow himself
breathing time, as it were, between two great efforts.

He spent some months at L'Estaque writing " line Page
d' Amour," and on returning to Paris late in the autumn of
1877, enriched as he was by the sales of " L'Assommoir," he
removed his home to a handsome third-floor flat, 23, Rue de
Boulogne. Then, while searching the environs of Paris for
a country pied-fa-terre, a convenient retreat for the following
summer — when the first great Exhibition since the Franco-
German War was to "be held in Paris — he came upon a
little house which took his fancy. It stood on the verge
of the village of M^dan, which overlooks the Seine, beyond
Poissy. Zola merely wished to rent it, but the owner de-
sired a purchaser, not a tenant, and in the end the novelist
bought the little place for nine thousand francs.1 A few
weeks later, says Alexis, builders, painters, and upholsterers
were turned into the house to repair and fit it for occupa-
tion, and for several years they remained busy there on the
various enlargements which followed and the other work
which became necessary.

Already in 1876, having acquired by his contributions to
" Le Bien Public f> what may be at least called a conspicuous
position as a dramatic critic of very absolute views, Zola,
still hankering for theatrical success, had written a farce
called "Le Bouton de Rose" intended for the Palais Royal
Theatre. At the beginning of 1877 the parts were distribu-
ted, and some rehearsals even took place; then, however,
the success of the work seeming doubtful, it was postponed ;

i £360 = about?!, 800.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 169

and Zola himself, somewliat diffident as to its merit, at
last decided to withdraw it altogether. But early in 1878
the great uproar occasioned by " L'Assommoir " inspired the
directors of the Palais Eoyal Theatre with a fresh desire
to stage this play by a man whose name was now on every-
body's lips. They urged him to consent, and he ultimately
did so, making various alterations which the directors deemed
to be advisable. The play was then rehearsed again, and
both the managers and the actors, now as sanguine as they
had previously been doubtful, imagined that it would prove
a triumph. But at the first performance (May 6, 1878 ) the
audience, after receiving the first act with favour, became
angry during the second, and hissed the third freely. In
vain did Geoffroy, the leading comedian, endeavour to an-
nounce the author's name according to usage ; such a tre-
mendous din arose when he appeared before the footlights,
that he was unable to make himself heard. Meantime Zola,
in the slips, was saying to the crestfallen directors : tc You
see I was right. You insisted on staging the piece in spite
of me. Your earlier decision to drop it was the better one."
In accordance with custom, he had arranged to celebrate
the first performance by a supper at V£four's. In a sense
the repast was a funereal one, though it proved by no means
doleful, for Zola took the failure of his play right cheerfully,
merely regretting that he would now have to modify the
order of the work which he had proposed to undertake that
year. Had " Le Bouton de Eose " been successful, he had
intended to begin another play, based on his novel "La
Cur£e," but that would now have to wait while he started
on the next novel of his series. Some days later, when din-
ing at M. Charpentier's, he told Goncourt that the failure of

170 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

"Le Bouton de Rose** made him feel quite young again.
The success of " L'Assommoir " had unnerved him, whereas
lie now seemed to have got back to his twentieth year. He
needed to be imbued with an angry fighting spirit, said he,
in order to write the many volumes which were required to
complete his Kougon-Macquart series.

" Une Page d'Amour" was about this time issued serially
by "Le Bien Public,^ whose readers took it more quietly
than they had taken " L'Assommoir " ; but when it appeared
as a volume * Zola was accused of having stolen his plot
from a novel called " Les Amours d'un Homme Laid," by
a Madame Berton, nee Samson. It may be said at once
that there are several points of resemblance between the
plots of these stories. A young widow, a doctor, and a
sickly child are prominent characters in both. At the same
time there is great difference of treatment; and Zola, on
hearing of the accusation, which first emanated from a jour-
nal called " La Paix Sociale," at once wrote to it : "I have
never read Madame Berton-Samson's story, and until today

1 was ignorant of the existence both of the author and
of the work."

To an unprejudiced person it may well seem that the
similarity existing between his story and Madame Berton's
was due solely to the long arm of coincidence. But of
course his enemies asserted that he lied. According to them

1 "Tine Page <T Amour," Paris, Charpentier, 1878, 18mo, Tii-486 pages
(genealogical tree of tlie Rougon-Macquarts) ; seven ty-fifth thousand on
sale in 1893 when the series was completed ; ninety-seventh, thousand in
1903, Illustrated edition ; Paris, Librairie du Bibliophile (Jouaust), 1884,

2 vols. crown 8vo, iv-261 and 287 pages; portrait and ten. designs "by
Ed. Dantan, etched by Duvivier, ornaments by G-iacomelli. Impressions on
various papers, Dutch, India, Japanese, etc. Another illustrated edition,
Paris, 1894, with etchings and woodcuts designed by F. TheVenot.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 171

lie was always lying : and indeed every tMng he wrote, from
the time of attaining any prominence, was denounced as
being wholly or in part plagiarism. Even " L'Assommoir "
was alleged to be merely a crib from Denis Poulot's "Le
Sublime";1 and, briefly, Ms adversaries would not allow
that he was possessed of a single spark of originality.

At this time (1878) he had so many irons in the fire, as
the saying goes, that it is difficult to follow his work in
strict chronological order. We find him preparing his
novel " Nana," collecting materials for it, devising its plot ;
penning theatrical criticisms for "Le Bien Public," con-
tributing to "Le Voltaire"; planning with Messrs. Bus-
nach and G-astineau a dramatic version of " L'Assommoir " ;
and writing a series of papers, chiefly on " Les Ronianciers
Naturalistes," for the " Viestnik Yevropi " of St. Petersburg.
One of those papers, a general critique of contemporary
French novelists, their methods and their abilities, was
a slashing and in some respects unjust onslaught on all
who did not conform to the tenets of the Naturalist school.
It was published by the Russian review in September (1878),
and a month later was denounced by a Swiss periodical,
" La Biblioth&que Universelle," which gave a resumt of its
contents. Such, however, was then the "insularity" of
France with respect to literary happenings abroad, that
December arrived before a Parisian journal, "Le Figaro,"
discovered the obnoxious paper and proceeded to rate its
author. This it did in its most virulent style, borrowing
for the occasion a variety of slang epithets from the pages
of "L'Assommoir." And as a crowning stroke Zola was

1 "Le Sublime, on le Travailleur comme il est et ce qu'il peut £tre,"
Paris, Charpentier, 1865.

172 tiMTLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

accused of arrant cowardice. He did not dare to attack
Ms contemporaries in the French language and in a French
journal, it was said; he sought a foreign country and a
foreign tongue for his venomous outpourings.

His reply to this accusation was characteristic. He
offered " Le Figaro " the original French manuscript of his
article — which differed in many respects from the resumt
issued by the Swiss review — and " Le Figaro," which had
denounced some of his remarks as unprintable, speedily in-
serted the entire paper in its literary supplement,1 The
uproar in literary circles then became terrific. Among
those whom Zola assailed were Hector Malot, Ferdinand
Fabre, Octave Feuillet, Victor Cherbuliez, Edmond About,
Louis Ulbach, Erckmann-Ohatrian, Paul F^val, Jules
daretie, and L£on Cladel; and it was pointed out that
the only writers whom he praised or spared were those
whose works were issued by his own publisher, M. Char-
pentier ! Of course, said the quidnuncs, he must have been
paid for this service; M. Charpentier could not have given
him less than ten thousand francs for his article, though
if M. Calmann-L^vy, for instance, had offered him twenty
thousand, he would doubtless have written up that pub-
lisher's writers instead of abusing them.

As already mentioned, the article in question was in
some measure unjust, for it assumed a priori that only the
Naturalist school of fiction was entitled to live; but at
the same time it contained some sound criticism. Nobody
nowadays would deny the proposition that Hector Malot,
in whom at one time many hopes had centred, never
produced a really great book ; that Jules Claretie also, in

1 "Le Figaro," Supplement Litt&aire, December 22, 1878.

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 173

spite of his many undoubted gifts, never rose above the
second rank as a novelist; that Cladel rendered himself
ridiculous by the affectation of his style, and that men
like About and Feuillet had greatly declined at the period
when Zola wrote. But, naturally enough, these, and all the
others whom he named, disliked to be told to their faces
that they had always been or had become inferior men;
and thus no little wrath was kindled in many directions.
There was, however, one man who not only showed no
resentment but unhesitatingly acknowledged his own great
admiration for Zola's work. And this, strange as it may
seem, was Octave Feuillet, who freely expressed himself
in that sense both to his friend, Adrien Marx, and to the
present writer. The latter had occasion to call upon him
with respect to one of his last books, and, some general
conversation on literary matters supervening, Feuillet men-
tioned Zola, saying that he had at first found it almost
impossible to read the writings of the Naturalist master,
but having forced himself to do^so, his feeling of repulsion
had departed, leaving sympathy and admiration in its place.
Another famous writer whom Zola attacked even more
bitterly than he attacked Feuillet, one with whom he had
many a literary duel — Alexandre Dumas fils — also ended
by expressing very kindly sentiments. "My literary stand-
point," he said to the present writer, "is not the same as
Zola's. On some matters no agreement between us is possi-
ble. But he is a strong man ; and," added Dumas bluffly,
with a momentary flash of the paternal manner, " what I
particularly like about him is his damned frankness."1

1 It was as the Paris correspondent of various English newspapers that
the writer became acquainted with a good many French literary men. A

174 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Later, when Zola became a candidate for the French Academy,
Dumas Jils was one of his most consistent supporters.1 Jules
Claretie also evinced an equally forgiving disposition.

As for Zola, his literary views certainly became more
liberal as he grew older; but at the period one has now
reached he was in his most arbitrary and dogmatic mood,
going so far as to suggest in a pamphlet that each rfyime
must have its appropriate literature, that Naturalist litera-
ture alone was suited to the Republic, and that the Republic
itself must prove Naturalist, or otherwise would assuredly
collapse. "By Naturalism," said he, "I mean analytical
and experimental methods based on facts and human docu-
ments. There must be agreement between the social move-
ment, which is the cause, and literature, which is the effect.
If the Republic, blind as to itself, and failing to understand
that it exists by the force of a scientific formula, should
begin to persecute that formula in literature, this would
be a sign that the Republic is not ripe for facts, and that
it must once again give place to one, that is dictatorship. " 2

The pamphlet we have quoted was issued early in 1879.
Some months previously both Gustave Flaubert and Al-
phonse Daudet, being well acquainted with M. Ag&ior
Bardoux, an Auvergnat poetaster and politician appointed
Miiister of Public Instruction, had suggested to him that
ZoFa, who by " L'Assommoir " had now risen to a con-
reference to the Paris letters in the first volumes of the " Illustrated Sporting
and Dramatic News " will show that the writer at one time dealt largely with
the [French stage. In that connection he was fortunate enough to secure the
favour of Dumas jits to whom he was indebted for many little kindnesses.

1 Zola to Yizetelly, November, 1898.

2 "La B^publique Franchise et la Litte'rature," 8vo, Paris, Charpentier,
1879. The text of this pamphlet was added by Zola to the collection of
papers entitled "Le Eoman Experimental," which he issued in 1880.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 175

spicuous position, ought to be made a knight of the
Legion of Honour.1 Daudet, in this matter, was actuated
by friendship and admiration, and Flaubert deemed him-
self to be under a great obligation to Zola. It seems
that while Flaubert was writing his "Bouvard et P^cuchet "
(which did not appear till after his death), he had often
spoken of it to his friends in a somewhat mysterious man-
ner, never actually giving the names of his characters, but
referring to them merely by their initials, B. and P. Zola
was then working on "Son Excellence Eug&ne Rougon,"
and one day, when he and Flaubert met at a lunch given
by M. Charpentier, he mentioned that a capital name had
occurred to him for one of his characters, this name being
Bouvard, which, with its suggestion of blotting-paper, was
certainly a fit appellation for a civil service scribe. It so
happened — such is coincidence — that Zola and Flaubert
proposed to bestow it on much the same type of man ; but
the former, of course, was quite ignorant of his friend's
intentions, for Flaubert, restricting himself to the initial
B., had never allowed the word Bouvard to escape his lips.
When it fell from Zola's, the author of " Madame Bovary n
was greatly upset. " He became quite strange," wrote Zola
on subsequently relating the incident, " and after lunch he
took me to the bottom of Charpentier's garden, where, with
a great show of emotion, he implored me to surrender the
name of Bouvard to Mm. I assented, laughing; but he
remained very grave, plainly touched, and even declared
that he would not have persevered with his book if I had
insisted on using the name. He looked upon his work as

i Alexis, I. c., p. 190 et se%. ; Adolphe Brisson in (< Le Temps," October 3,
1902.

176 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER

being entirely in those two names Bouvard and Pdcuchet,
and could not picture it without them."1

Now Flaubert was one of the best-hearted men in the
world. He regarded Zola's trifling concession as an act of
great generosity, and it was to mark his sense of it that
he solicited for his friend the Cross of the Legion of Hon-
our. Pressed both by Daudet and Flaubert, M. Bardoux
showed himself very favourably disposed; and when, in
accordance with usage, he was visited by Zola, he told him
straightly he would be gazetted on the next National
F§te-day July 14, 1878. That date came and went, how-
ever, and Zola's name did not appear in the "Journal
Officiel" — the cross promised to him going, instead, to
Ferdinand Fabre. Other occasions presented themselves,
Bardoux was often urged to keep his promise, but as often
evaded it, and of course when the uproar provoked by
Zola's paper on his fellow-novelists supervened, it afforded
a good excuse for shelving the matter altogether. Mean-
time the affair had become common talk in certain literary
circles, and Zola, who felt that he was being made ridicu-
lous, had more than once threatened to fling the cross in
Bardoux's face if he should eventually tender it. Alexis,
in recounting the affair, throws virtually all the blame
on the Minister; but the latter, after various paltry and
untruthful excuses, which certainly put him in a bad light,
told Edmond de Goncourt that if he had failed to keep his
promise it was not his fault, but really that of his colleagues
in the Government.2

It really seems to be the case that the question whether

1 "Les Romanciers ETaturalistes," p. 204.

3 "Journal des Goncourt," Vol. VI (January 21, 1879).

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 177

Zola should be decorated was made an affair of State,
solemnly debated by the Council of Ministers at the Ely-
s£e Palace, Marshal MacMahon being in the chair, prob-
ably with his usual cigar between his lips, and his usual
bottle of green Chartreuse standing handy on a cheffonnier,
in order that he might help himself whenever " he felt so
disposed," which, according to the scandal-mongers of the
day, was pretty often. And the brave, honest, and narrow-
minded Marshal, who — perhaps at his wife's instigation —
absolutely refused to promote the impious Eenan from the
rank of chevalier to that of officer of the Legion of Honour,
was in thorough agreement with all the Ministers who
opposed the unlucky Bardoux when he asked that the red
ribbon might be conferred on the obscene Zola. On his
side, the latter, ignorant of the real circumstances of the
case, and more and more annoyed by the spiteful allusions
to the affair which appeared in some of the newspapers,
issued an open letter formally signifying his renunciation
of the red ribbon, with the result that for some years there
was no further question of " decorating " the foremost nov-
elist of France.

On January 18, 1879, the Ambigu Theatre gave the first
performance of the dramatic version of " L'Assommoir " pre-
pared by Messrs. Busnach and Gastineau, who, in point
of fact, had been largely assisted by Zola, though his name
did not appear on the bills, and he allowed all the merit of
the play's success to be attributed to his colleagues. Gon-
court tells us that during the rehearsals his melancholy
mien quite chilled the actors, who by no means anticipated
a success.1 While the first performance was in progress

* "Journal des Goncourt, Vol. VI (January 21, 1878).
12

178 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

Zola sat reading in tlie manager's private room, and on the
fall of the curtain Ms friends repaired thither to inform him
that, apart from a little hissing, everything had gone off
satisfactorily. Nevertheless, the critics attacked the play,
an English writer, George Augustus Sala, evincing par-
ticular distress in a long article which recalled Sarcey's
customary brief verdict : " That man Zola makes me ill." l

But all Paris had read " L'Assommoir " as a novel, and
wished to see it on the stage ; 2 and, besides, even the critics
could not deny that Madame H^lfene Petit's impersonation
of the unhappy Gervaise was a great personal triumph.
Thus crowds flocked to the Theatre de 1'Ambigu, whose
director, Henri Chabrillat, an ex-journalist and novelist,
who had commanded the Francs-tireurs de la Presse during
the Franco-German War, suddenly found himself making
a fortune.

In honour of the staff and company of the Ambigu,
the authors of the play ended by giving a ball at the
Elys6e Montmartre, which, by the way, figured in Zola's
story; and Mr. George Moore, the well-known author of
"A Mummer's Wife" and "Esther Waters," has related
that his first meeting with Zola — of whom he became
for several years the chief English supporter — occurred
at this particular entertainment.3 Mr. Moore — who had
then only produced his "Flowers of Passion," and was
therefore known in Parisian literary and art circles as
a young poet — attended the ball dressed as a Parisian

1 See Sala's "Paris herself Again, " London, Vizetelly & Co., 1879 et seq.

2 It will be remembered that Charles Eeade prepared an English version
entitled " Drink."

8 "My Impressions of Zola," by George Moore, in "The English Illus-
trated Magazine," February, 1894

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 179

workman, and was engaged to dance with Gervaise. He
had no opportunity for conversation when Manet intro-
duced him to Zola, but he called at M&lan a few weeks
afterwards, and a close friendship sprang up between Mm
and the author of " L'Assommoir." Each, however, was
possessed of strong personal convictions, and, as years
went by, Zola's life and work gradually took a course of
which Mr. Moore did not approve, perhaps because — as
admitted by himself — he failed to understand it.

The law of the world is evolution. EJumme abmrde
est celui gui ne change jamais; and Zola, amid the very
triumph of " L'Assommoir," at the very moment when
he was expounding the principles of Naturalism in the
"Viestnik Yevropi" and "Le Yoltaire" (which he joined
when "Le Bien Public " ceased publication), was already,
and quite unconsciously, perhaps, undergoing a change.
He was in some degree carried away by the sudden acces-
sion of ample means after years of poverty and years of
battle. In the long run he showed himself superior to
fortune, whether it were favourable or adverse, but he found
its first smile irresistible, as so often happens with those
who have long toiled and suffered and cursed their fate.
Briefly, he proved no exception to the general rule; and
he was taunted with having failed to depart from it,
being candidly told in print that, like Herbert Spencer and
Gustave Flaubert, he ought to have been quite content
with mere lodging-house surroundings, and that he made
a ridiculous use of his comparative wealth.

Most of his money, it may be mentioned, was lavished
on his property at M£dan, to which he made many addi-
tions, building, for instance, a large square tower in which

180 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

he fitted up a spacious workroom, whose huge window
suggested that of a studio. In that room in later years
most of his "books were written. And as wealth accrued
a second large tower was added to the first, followed by
some smaller ones flanking the entrance of the property.
All this was denounced as had taste ; and unquestionably,
from an architectural point of view, M4dan, with one bit
of building added here and another there, became a strange-
looking place. At the same time it remains an interest-
ing memorial of the rise of Zola's fortunes. One knows,
for instance, that the first tower was built with money
derived from " L'Assommoir," that the second was erected
with some of the proceeds of "Nana," that this and that
enlargement were paid for by " La Terre " or " La DdMcle."
Certainly no common parvenu would have left such a
tell-tale record. It is doubtful whether he would have
been content to dwell during the greater part of the year
in an out-of-the way village like M^dan ; and even had he
retained possession of the property he would surely have
demolished the original humble little house and have
erected some grand Louis Treize cMteau on the site.

But another charge preferred against Zola was that he
wasted time and money in collecting works of art and
curios — the latter more often than the former. In his
novel, " L'CEuvre," he gave an explanation of this which is
worth quoting:

" His [Sandoz's, otherwise Zola's] drawing-room was becoming
crowded with old furniture, old tapestry, nick-nacks of all coun-
tries and all times — an overflowing torrent of things which had
begun at Batignolles with an old pot of Eouen ware, which Hen-
riette [Madame Zola] had given her husband on one of his f&te

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 181

days. They ran about the curiosity shops together ; they felt a
joyful passion for buying ; and he now satisfied the old longings
of his youth, the romanticist aspirations which the first books he
had read had engendered. Thus this writer, who was so fiercely
modern, lived amid the worm-eaten middle ages which he had
dreamt of when he was a lad of fifteen. As an excuse, he laugh-
ingly declared that handsome modern furniture cost too much,
whereas with old things, even common ones, you immediately ob-
tained some effect and colour. There was nothing of fhe collector
about Jiim, his one concern was decoration, broad effects; and to
tell the truth, the drawing-room, lighted by two lamps of old
Delft ware, derived quite a soft, warm tone from the dull gold of
the dalmaticas used for upholstering the seats, the yellowish incrus-
tations of the Italian cabinets and Dutch show-cases, the faded
hues of the Oriental door-hangings, the hundred little notes of
the ivory, the crockery and the enamel work, pale with age,
which showed against the dull red hangings."1

No doubt, among the great quantity of tapestry, carved
wood, old furniture, pottery, church embroideries, and so
forth, which Zola thus gathered together, there were oc-
casionally things which did not suggest the best taste or
the greatest accuracy of judgment. But the statement
quoted above shows that he disclaimed collecting in the
ordinary sense, and made purchases solely for decorative
purposes. And, in any case, even if lie bought a few
things whose only recommendation was their quaintness,
or accepted an object as genuine when an expert would
have known it to be spurious, his transgressions in those
matters were of no importance to the world at large, and
one is surprised that some of his " candid friends " should
have thought it worth while to expatiate on them.

i «

L'CEuvre," p. 435.

182 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

It has been urged, however, that directly money came
to Zola, instead of yielding to a desire for comfort, he ought
to have devoted himself to travel and study, and particu-
larly have restrained his literary output He would have
derived henefit from foreign travel undoubtedly, but his
self-set task of the Rougon-Macquart series long riveted
him to France. As for study, he was always studying,
books as well as men, and Mr. George Moore's suggestion
that he had little acquaintance with the heart of French
literature1 was erroneous, for abundant proof of the con-
trary will be found in the eight volumes of his collected
essays and articles. These also show that he kept abreast
of the literature of Ms time, and all his friends are aware
that new books and literary periodicals, to say nothing of
a profusion of newspapers, encompassed him during the last
twenty years of his life. But, in a large degree, he cer-
tainly set the literature of the past behind him, regarding
it as being chiefly of historical value. And whether he
were right or wrong in that matter, it must be obvious
that his attitude was in keeping with his character as an
evolutionist. In a word, he was more concerned respecting
the future of literature than respecting its antecedents.

But it has been said that a change began to appear in
Zola about the time of " I/Assommoir," and the change
we more particularly mean is that by which the novelist
expanded into a reformer. As scores of his newspaper
articles, collected and uncollected, testify, the injustice of
the social system had always been manifest to him. With
the degradation of many individual lives he was well ac-
quainted. His own rise to affluence made him yet more

i "JEnglMi Illustrated Magazine," L c.

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 183

conscious of the difference "between the rich and the poor.
His descent into the mire of life, to seek there his Cou-
peau, his Lantier, and his Gervaise, left on his mind some
impress of the horror which he imparted to others. And
thus, with him, art no longer remained art for art's sake
only, — a broad humanitarianism gradually entered into his
literary conceptions.

At the outset the novelist and the reformer were cer-
tainly more or less at variance. The cuisine of politics still
remained distasteful to Zola, and he is often found protest-
ing that he is merely a literary man and does not wish to
intervene in passing events. But as the years elapse the
reforming instinct becomes more and more powerful, gathers
increased strength from such works as "Germinal" and
"La Terre," till at last the humanitarian feeling, triumph-
ing over everything else, trampling unrestrained upon all
literary canons, finds voice in "Lourdes" and "Paris/'
"Pdcondit6" and "Travail," and at a supreme moment
impels Zola to champion the chosen victim of Roman
Catholic fanaticism and military infallibility.

At an early stage of his gradual transformation he is seen
defining the novelist as an exponent, an analyst, a dissector
of human life. His work is to be accomplished in strict
accordance with science, and the methods of the great
scientist, Claude Bernard, arej held up to him as examples.
This idea of "le Roman Experimental," as Zola finally
called the scientific fiction he expounded, had long haunted
him; but when he wished to give it really adequate ex-
pression he was momentarily at a loss as to where he might
find the most forcible and most modern exposition of scien-
tific principles and methods. It was his friend M. Yves

184 tHILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOEMER

Guyot, a many-sided mm, then only a journalist, later a
Minister of State, and now eminent as a political economist,
who recommended him to study Claude Bernard.1 On that
study Zola based one of the most famous of his essays.
Science, which appeals so little to some minds, particu-
larly literary minds of the average calibre, is really the
greatest humanitarian agency we possess. The man who
experiments, the man who dissects, does not do so for
mere pleasure; his aim is the increase and diffusion of
knowledge, the benefit of the world, the advantage of his
fellowmen. That which is learnt in the laboratory, the
workshop, the operating room is put to use in a thousand
ways. In physiological and medical science the work may
often be very repulsive, yet it reveals the causes of many
flaws and ailments, and points to the means of cure. A
similar aim became Zola's as he proceeded with his novels.
He made it his purpose to inquire into all social sores, all
the imperfections and lapses of collective and individual
life that seemed to him to require remedying. That every-
thing should be made manifest in order that everything
might be healed, such w^s the motto he adopted.

Yet in the first instance he did not preach, he did not
denounce ; he contented himself with stating the facts ; he
confined himself to analysis, dissection, and demonstration,
and he used the novel as his vehicle, because the novel
alone appealed to the great majority of people to whom it
was necessary that the facts should be made patent if any
remedy were to be applied.

1 So stated by M. Yves Guyot in conversation with the writer and others
in the autumn of 1902. It ought to have "been mentioned that it was M.
Griiyot who engaged Zola as dramatic critic of " Le Bien Public." See ante,
* 156.

£-

flj

iDMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE 185

But the prejudiced, the purblind, and the foolish, the
hundreds of so-called critics who had glanced at his noyels
but had never perused a line of the essays in which he
enunciated his principles, responded by accusing him of a
degraded partiality for filth, of wallowing in mire, because
such was his favourite element. The sensation created by
" L' Assommoir " had been great, that which attended the
production of "Nana" was perhaps greater.

Much of the year 1878 was spent by Zola in making
preparations for that book. Incredible as it may seem, his
critics have actually reproached him for his previous igno-
rance of the "successful" Parisian courtesan. His know-
ledge of her had certainly been limited to her out-door life ;
like others he had seen her, elbowed her at the theatres,
in the Bois, and at other places of public resort. That was
all. He therefore applied to friends and acquaintances for
information, Edmond de Goncourt, who had repeatedly
dined at the table of La Paiva l before she became the wife
of Henckel von Donnersmarck, gave him a variety of in-
formation; Ludovic HaWvy initiated him into the demi-

1 This woman had an extraordinary career. She was of German origin,
her real name being Theresa Lachmann, but she was bom in Russia, and
first married a French tailor of Moscow, named Villoing. After eloping with
Herz, the well-known pianist, she entered the Parisian demi-monde under the
auspices of the notorious Esther Guimond. Finding herself in difficulties
she proceeded to London, fascinated and half-ruined a member of an English
ducal house, returned to Paris, ruined several French nobles there, and ulti-
mately married Yiscount Armijo de Paiva of the Portuguese Legation, whom
she also ruined and who committed suicide. Though her beauty, whieh had
been great, was then fading, she captivated Count Henckel von Donnersmarck,
a connection of the Bismarck family, and he ended by marrying her. She
lived in a magnificent mansion in the Champs Elyse'es adorned by Baudry,
Cabanel, Ger6me, and Cl^singer; and Girardin, Gautier, About, Ponsard,
Augier, Houssaye, and Goncourt were familiars of her drawing-room. She
died in 1884 on her husband's estate in Silesia.

186 IHiTLV, ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

mondaine side of theatrical life, to which, given all his
intercourse with Hortense Schneider, Zulma Bouffar, and
others, he was the most competent of guides; men of
fashion, who had wasted their best years and much of their
money among the harlots of the Second Empire, told him
tales of their experiences ; he visited the house of one belle
impnre from basement to attic, and he supped at the house
of another. Of the lower-class unfortunate he had, perforce,
seen a good deal during his bohemian years in the Quartier
Latin, and all observers of women of that category are
aware that in most cases, though they may acquire some
superficial polish on rising to wealth, their real natures
undergo little change.

Zola's enemies naturally imputed the writing of " Nana "
to his partiality for vice and scandal; but those who are
acquainted with *'L'A&sommoir" will recognise that, in such
a series as " Les Rougon-Macquart," a study of the courtesan
was the necessary corollary of the study on drink and the
general degradation of the working class. It is from such
homes as those of Coupeau and Gervaise that spring nine-
tenths of the unhappy creatures so grimly denominated
filks de joie. Nana's childhood and youth had already
been recounted in " L'Assommoir," and it was certain that
Zola would not leave her there. How could he picture the
degenerescence of a period if he omitted the harlot, who
had played — people hardly seem to recognise it nowadays
— such a prominent, such a commanding part, during the
years when Napoleon III. — dallying himself with La
Castiglione, La Bellanger, and a dozen others, while his
cousin Prince Napoleon J&r6me kept the notorious Cora
Pearl — had transformed the proud city of Paris into the

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOBMER 187

brothel of Europe ? Again, scores of Zola's contemporaries,
writers of various degrees, by trying to poetise the courtesan,
had increased her influence a hundred-fold, and the time had
come to check her encroachments by exhibiting her in her
true colours, with all her vulgarity, her greed, her degrada-
tion, her shamelessness and heartlessness.

In September, 1879, when Zola had written about half of
" Nana," he arranged with M. Laffitte, editor of " Le Voltaire/'
which was then publishing his articles on " scientific fiction/1
to produce the story in that newspaper; and M. Laffitte
at once advertised it in a fashion worthy of Barnum himself.
Huge posters appeared on all the walls of Paris, "dis-
played " announcements invaded the newspapers, sandwich
men patrolled the streets, ticket-advertisements were even
affixed to the gutta-percha tubes of the pipe-lights in the
tobacconists* shops ; and, indeed, upon every side one found
the imperious injunction : Read Nana ! Nana ! ! Nana ! 1 11
All this greatly vexed Zola, who had shut himself up at
MMan to finish the book, and who did not at all desire
to be advertised in such an extravagant fashion. To make
matters worse, the serial issue had scarcely commenced
(October 16, 1879) when several newspapers began to
discuss the story, all the quidnuncs demonstrating by A
plus B that the opening chapter was not at all such as it
ought to be, and that the work was bound to prove a failure.
Then, too, letters full of suggestions or criticism or denun-
ciation rained upon Zola at M£dan, putting his nerves to
the severest test. Nevertheless, he worked on steadily,
taking the greatest care over even the most trifling details,
employing a friend to obtain precise information on such
i Alexis, 1. c., p. 118.

188 tMim ZOLA* NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER

matters as phaetons and tandems, the decorations of Ma-
bille, the aspect of the rooms on the top-floor of the Grand
Hotel, the view from them, and the facial mask of a woman
dying (as !NTana died) from small-pox.1

As the publication proceeded in " Le Voltaire " the com-
plaints became more numerous. A good many people pro-
fessed to be shocked ; Gambetta presently complained to the
editor that the story was "too strong"; and the editor
requested Zola's permission to curtail or omit certain pas-
sages. This was accorded, the latter half of the work
appearing in "Le Voltaire" in a bowdlerized form. On
January 2, 1880, Zola started on the fourteenth and last
chapter, and on January 7 he completed it "Let me tell
you a great piece of news," he wrote to a Mend that day,
" I finished c Nana ' this morning. . . , What relief I Never
did any previous work of mine upset me as this has done.
At present let it be worth what it may, it has ceased to
exist for me. ... I write to you in the joy of deliverance.
My last chapter seems to me to be the most weird and
successful thing I have ever written."2

1 Mr. R. H. Sherard in his " $mile Zola : a Biographical and Critical Study,"
London, 1903, prints several of Zola's letters on the above subjects. The
following may be given as a specimen : "Me* dan, September 18, 1879 : I have
received your book on small-pox. That will evidently suffice for my purpose.
I will devise a death mask by comparing the various documents. I am very
much tempted to make the disease black pox which, in point of horror, is
the strangest. Only I admit that if without taking too much, trouble you
could manage to see the corpse of a person who had died of that complaint —
I say, that is a nice little task I — you would oblige me greatly. ... In that
case mind you supply full details about the state of the eyes, nose and mouth,
giving me a precise geographical chart, from which, of course, I should only
take what I may need." This suggestion was not acted upon. In. describing
Nana's death Zola eventually had to rely on the statements he found in
medical works.

2 Sherard, Z. c., p. 171.

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOKMEB 189

A few weeks later, that is on February 15, "
appeared in "book form, the passages omitted from "Le
Voltaire" being reinstated in the text Large orders
having been received from various parts of the world, M.
Charpentier had ordered fifty-five thousand copies to be
printed; but on the very day of publication he found it
necessary to order ten thousand more.1 In the case of
"Nana," as in that of " L3 Assommoir," the public gave no
heed to the critics, who, of course, raised their customary
protests. In certain matters of detail their objections
were well founded. Zola had made a few mistakes in
dealing with some of the minutice of theatrical and
turf life/ and, as" Madame Edmond Adam remarked
in the "Nouvelle Revue" — and as the author himself
subsequently admitted — Nana was shown accomplishing
in few years what, in actual life, would have taken a
woman much longer to accomplish. That, however, was
forced upon Zola by the scheme of his series, the incidents
recorded in which had to occur between the years 1852 and
1870.2 When all is said, taking "Nana" in its ensemble, it
was certainly the most truthful picture ever traced of the

1 "Fana," Paris, Charpentier, 1880, 18mo, 528 pages; one hundred and
sixty-sixth, thcmsand on sale in 1893 ; one hundred and ninety-eighth thou-
sand in 1903 ; some special copies on Japan, India, and Dutch papers.
Illustrated edition: Marpon and Flammarion, n. d. "but 1882, large 8vo
titles, 456 pages, with sixty-six wood engravings after Bertall, Gill, Bel-
lenger, Olairin, etc. A hundred copies printed oil Dutch paper with impres-
sions of the engravings on India paper, and a special frontispiece showing
Nana on a sofa. The ordinary copies of the illustrated edition were priced at
6 francs, "but were also sold very largely in fifty-seven parts at 10 centimes.
From 1882 to the present time ( 1903 ) over two hundred thousand copies of the
illustrated edition have been sold, bringing the total sales of the work ( apart
from translations) to nearly half a million copies.

2 See his explanations on this subject in the preface to E. A. Yizetelly's
translation of "Le Doeteur Pascal," London, Chatto, 1893 et seq.

190 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOEMER

so-called Parisian world of pleasure in Imperial times. Of
course the boot was denounced as immoral. The Parisian
smart set shrieked loudly; many a Boulevardian journal-
ist, whose looseness of life was notorious, perorated in club
and caf6 respecting the amazing depravity of that man
Zola ; and in addition to abusive newspaper articles, there
again came scurrilous pamphlets and parodies after the
fashion of those which had followed " L'Assommoir."

Zola did not reply immediately ; but in 1881, when
** Nana " had been dramatised, he contributed a few articles
to "Le Figaro" on the subject, besides penning a longer
paper on " Immorality in Literature," in which he contended
that writers of the Idealist school made vice all roses and
rapture, whereas the Naturalists made it repulsive. And he
was absolutely convinced, he said, that far more heads had
been turned, more young men and girls and women led
into dangerous courses, by the works of George Sand, Octave
Feuillet, Barbey d*Aur£nlly, and even Sir Walter Scott, than
by the writings of Flaubert, Balzac, Goncourt, and their fol-
lowers. As for " Nana," said he, it had given offence be-
cause it was a true picture, and therefore spoilt the pleasure
of the mveurs of Paris, who wished to see everything couleur
de rose beneath a cloud of poudre-de-riz?-

In 1880, after the publication of "Nana," Zola wrote
several short stories. He had published one, " Nais Micou-
lin," in a paper called " La K&f orme/* towards the close of
the previous year; and he now gave "La F§te & Coqrieville,"
"LTnondation," and "Nantas," to "Le Yoltaire," to which
journal -he also contributed some papers on Th^ophile Gau~
tier, Ste.-Beuve, and others. But a better known publica-

1 " Documents Litteraires," p. 375 & ^.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEB 191

tion in which, he was interested appeared during the spring.
This was the collection of stories called "Les Soirees de
M&lan,"1 to which Zola contributed his well-known tale,
" I/ Attaque du Moulin," which he had previously published
in Eussia, and which subsequently provided his friend M.
Alfred Bruneau with the subject for an opera. Nowadays
in its form as a story " L' Attaque du Moulin n has become
a reading book in many French and English schools.

As mentioned in a previous chapter, five younger writ-
ers, Alexis, Huysmans, Maupassant, C4ard, and Hennique,
had gathered round Zola, whose literary views they largely
shared.3 Each of them contributed to the so-called " Soirees
de M4dan," the preface of which stated: "The following
stories have been published previously, some in France,
others abroad. It has seemed to us that they have sprung
from one and the same idea, that their philosophy is identi-
cal. "We therefore unite them. We are prepared for all the
attacks, the bad faith, and the ignorance of which current
criticism has already given us so many examples. Our only
concern has been to affirm publicly what are really our
friendships and our literary tendencies."

At that time, of the six: writers responsible for that pref-
ace, only Zola had acquired a position ; and such a solemn
manifesto seemed therefore somewhat presumptuous, the
more particularly as, apart from Zola's tale, the only other

1 The first edition (Charpentier, 18mo, 301 pages ) was accompanied by
ten copies on India and fifty on Dutch paper. There was a special edition in
1890, small 8vo, 807 pages, six portraits etched by Fernand Desmoulin, and
six illustrations etched by Muller after Jeanniot. Of this edition one copy was
printed on Japan paper with three sets of the etchings ; one copy on parchment
with two sets of the etchings before lettering; and sixteen on Dutch paper
with two sets of the etchings, both before and after lettering.

3 See ante, p. 162v

192 IfflOQLB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

of real merit in the book was Guy de Maupassant's. For
him, so far as the book-reading public was concerned, " Les
Soirees de M&lan " proved virtually a dfbut, whose promise
his subsequent writings confirmed. " Boule de Suif," as he
called his contribution to the volume, was the tale of a
woman, who is shown sacrificing herself, during the Franco-
German War, for the convenience and safety of others.
They entreat her in that sense, and yet as soon as they
are free they spurn her and abandon her to her shame.
This woman, like the other people figuring in the story,
actually lived,1 and indeed it would be difficult to find half
a dozen really imaginary characters in all Guy de Maupas-
sant's tales. He carried the passion for personalities even
farther than Alphonsa Daudet did, and there exists, it is
said, a set of his writings, on the margins of which he
himself wrote the real names of almost every person and
locality he ever described. One may conclude that he was
perhaps a more genuine Naturalist than Zola, his work
being invariably based on "human documents," the fruit
of personal observation and experience. This occasionally
tended to make his art unduly photographic; but, at the
same time, as is well known, his literary style was excel-

1 Her real name was Adrienne Legay and she really bore the nickname of
** Ball of Tallow." She was of peasant extraction, and was born near Fecamp
about 1850. Coming to Eouen, where she became the mistress of a cavalry
officer and later of a manufacturer of cotton goods, she at one time kept
a small hosiery shop, at another a little cafe". Finally, after making a
precarious liTing as a fortune-teller, she committed suicide at Eouen in
August, 1892. She often declared to the literary men who became ac-
quainted with her that she herself gave Maupassant the idea of his story
by telling him an adventure of hers, which, however, had not resulted in the
manner he described ; and she accused him of having pilloried her in a spirit
of revenge for having rejected his suit when he was a penniless hobbledehoy
at Boueru

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER 193

lent, and from that standpoint some of Ms tales are un-
doubtedly masterpieces of their kind.

Unfortunately there was insanity in Guy de Maupassant's
family, which was old, of good nobility, but limited means.
His father, who had been a painter and had played a
prominent part in founding a famous Paris art club, had
died in a lunatic asylum. The same fate befel his brother ;
and, according to some accounts, there was insanity on his
mother's side also. In any case, from birth onward a
dreadful threat hung over Guy de Maupassant, and the life
he led from the time he became his own master was not
calculated to ward off the danger. He was a man of the
strongest passions, a beau male, as the French say; and
women began the work which absinthe, opium, and morphia
completed. At last, still young in years, at the height of
his celebrity, he attempted his life, and was only saved
from immediate death to languish awhile in an asylum.
One cannot think of him, as of some others, without feeling
the force of the contention that very little may at times
separate genius from insanity.

Immediately " Les Soirdes de M£dan " appeared, its con-
tributors were chaffed by the newspapers for attributing
undue importance to themselves ; and Zola was said to be
bringing up these young men in leading-strings for the
express advancement of his literary theories. A rather
acrimonious controversy ensued, Zola repeatedly declaring
that he was not, and did not wish to be, a chef d'Scole, and
that those with whom he was associated were his friends and
not his disciples. But the discussion suddenly ceased, for
the literary world of Paris was startled by the unexpected
news of Gustave Flaubert's death at Croisset, near Eouen.

194 *MTTJR ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

During the previous Easter (March, 1880) the veteran
author had received Daudet, Zola, Charpentier, Maupassant,
and Goncourt at his country place, and Groncourt has related
in his "Journal" how thoroughly they enjoyed Flaubert's
paternal hospitality, and how on Easter Monday they lin-
gered in Rouen, ferreting among old curiosity shops, playing
billiards, and planning a diner fin at the principal hotel
When, however, they wished to give their order, consterna-
tion fell on them : it was a holiday ; all the provision shops
were closed, the hotel larder was virtually empty, and the
diner fin resolved itself into veal cutlets and cheese. That
amusing experience was still in Zola's mind when, on
May 8, he received at M6dan this laconic telegram from
Maupassant : " Flaubert dead." Dead — and they had left
Mm so gay and so full of life and health ! Zola was pro-
foundly attached to Flaubert, and the tidings quite un-
manned him. On May 11 he started for Le Croisset and
attended the "funeral, of which he has left a deeply interest-
ing account, instinct with all the grief of one who has lost
a near and dear friend. In these later years various English
versions of some of Flaubert's books have been published,
but, so far as the present writer is aware, no editor or
publisher has thought of utilising Zola's account of Flaubert
as an introduction to a translation. Yet that account is
perhaps Zola's best work as an essayist, — full of interest,
and much of it admirable in tone and style. One may say,
too, that anybody wishing to form an accurate opinion of
G-ustave Flaubert, both as a writer and as a man, cannot
do better than read the hundred pages which Zola devoted
to him in his "Romanciers Naturalistes."

But another blow fell on Zola in 1880. In October his

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 195

mother, long ailing and crippled, passed away at M4dan.
Various painful circumstances attended the death and the
funeral; and Goncourt, writing at the end of the year,
pictures Zola as having become a perfect hypochondriac
in consequence of this loss. He complained of all sorts of
ailments, kidney disease and palpitations of the heart, talked
of his own death as being near at hand, and feared that he
would not have time to finish anything. Briefly, " he was
filling the world with his name, his books were selling by
the hundred thousand, no other author, perhaps, had ever
created such a stir, and yet he felt profoundly miserable."1

About the time when his mother died his articles on
" scientific fiction," previously issued, some in " Le Voltaire "
and others in the " Viestnik Yevropi," were republished in
a volume.2 One of them had greatly offended Laffitte, the
editor of "Le Voltaire," who being mixed up in sundry
transactions with some of Gambetta's satellites, resented
Zola's caustic allusions to them. Nor was an article on
some scandal occasioned by the erotic publications of the
" Gil Bias " to his liking. He ended by accusing his con-
tributor of defending obscenity and of treating public men
with disrespect. A rupture followed. Zola castigated
Laffitte in a foot-note to one of the incriminated articles
when he reissued them in a book, and turned to "Le
Figaro," which gave him all liberty to defend his ideas.
He then began a series of articles, republished in a volume
the following year under the title of "Une Campagne."3

1 "Journal des Goncourt," YoL VI, p. 127.

2 "Le Eoman Experimental," Paris, Charpentier, 1880, 18mo, vii-416
pages. This volume, in which the whole theory of Naturalistic fiction is
expounded, has been reprinted several times with the mention : " Nouvelle
Edition."

8 "Une Campagne," Paris, Charpentier, 1881, 18mo, x-408 pages.

196 tlULE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEE

They dealt with a great variety of subjects, political, liter-
ary, and social, and show how wide was the interest which
Zola took in the affairs of his time. One of them on Victor
Hugo and his poem "L'Ane" caused a sensation, for most
people deemed it positive sacrilege to attack the greatest
literary glory of the age. The uproar was even heard
across the channel, and Mr. Swinburne, who admired
"L'Ane," and held Zola to be mere "stench," manifested
particular indignation. But a quarter of a century has
elapsed since then, and it is a question whether many
people would be inclined nowadays to regard "L'Ane" as
a great poem. In a sense, Zola's attack was unkind, but
it was essentially one on fetish worship, on the habit of
kvishing indiscriminate praise on everything, good, bad,
or indifferent, that might come from the pen of a writer of
eminence. Let us remember that there has never yet been
a poet of whom one might say his every line is a master-
piece. Homer nodded, so did Hugo, and so has even Mr.
Swinburne himself.

Some of Zola's articles in "Le Figaro" dealt with his
own work; others with that of his friends Goncourt, Huys-
mans, Maupassant, and Daudet; but several were political
— attacks on Gambetta and so forth, written in the same
spirit which had prompted the article on Hugo. Gambetta,
as will be remembered, had now (1880-1881) reached the
crisis of his life. The Tunisian debt scandal, the frauds
of the Union G6n&ale, — a Catholic bank established with
the papal blessing for the purpose of wresting financial
power from the Jews, — were associated by some folk with
his "great ministry." Besides, his proposals for changing
the electoral system, his patronage of reactionary generals,

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 197

able men, it must be admitted, divided the Republican
party. He was accused, too, of acting as a drag, of checking
the progress of the democracy, of sacrificing principles to
personal interest. He had certainly become somewhat
sluggish so far as measures were concerned, and, as Zola
put it, he seemingly imagined that orations sufficed for
everything. "It was not his actions which gave him his
position, but his phrases," Zola wrote. "He has always
defeated his adversaries by phrases. He has acquired
authority by phrases. ... If there be any question of
taking a forward step he makes a speech. If there be a
question of warding off a danger he makes a speech. If
there be a question of making his authority felt he again
makes a speech. He speechifies without a break, and all
over the country."1

Later, after Gambetta had come into conflict with Ms
constituents, and the elections of 1881 had shown that the
so-called Opportunist cause was seriously compromised,
Zola returned to the attack, and one may the more appro-
priately quote a passage from his article called " Drunken
Slaves/' as it shows how deftly he profited by an oppor-
tunity to defend Ms literary cause while dealing with a
political subject. Before giving that passage, however, it
is as well to explain that Gambetta, having encountered a
hostile reception at an electoral meeting at Charonne, had
completely lost his head. Threatening his adversaries
(all working-men) with his walking stick he shouted to
them furiously : " Silence, you squallers ! silence, you
brawlers! , . . You pack of drunken slaves, I will track
you to your lairs I " And as if this were not sufficient, his
1 "Une Campagne," Gambetta, p. 105.

198 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER

newspaper, "La K^publique !Fran§aise," added in its next
issue such choice epithets as: "Cowards, incapables, pros-
titutes* bullies, jail-birds, and pot-house loafers." All who
might not vote for the great man having been thus stigma-
tised in advance, it might be assumed when Gambetta, in
lieu of his usual great majority, polled only 9,404 votes
against 8,799, that about half the electorate was given over
to drink, crime, and depravity. Taking this as his text
Zola wrote as follows:

" The figures on either side are nearly equal, so it is established
that at Belleville and Charonne one of every two citizens is never
sober. * . . Yes, one half of the masses is composed of brawlers,
drunkards, and cowards. M. Gambetta said to them : * We will
see which side is the most numerous ' ; and they have seen. Of
20,000 citizens 10,000 are drunken slaves . . . 10,000 drunken
slaves ! The figures make me thoughtful. I remember a novelist
who wrote a novel called * L'Assommoir/ It was a conscientious
study of the ravages caused by drink among the working classes
of Paris* It was instinct with pity and affection, it solicited
mercy for womanhood and for childhood, it showed labour van-
quished by sloth and alcohol, it begged for air and light and
instruction for the unhappy poor, more social comfort, and less
political agitation. Now do you know in what fashion M,
Gambetta's friends and newspapers greeted that book? They
denounced it as an evil action, a crime. They dragged its author
through the mire. . . . Pamphlets did not suffice them, they
even delivered lectures, and declared publicly that the author
had insulted the people of Paris. They would have hanged him
had they been able, in the hope that by so doing they might
secure a hundred additional votes at the next elections. Tes, it
was so. M. Gambetta's friends and newspapers were then all
tenderness for the people. M. Gambetta had invariably secured
a large majority at Belleville, and it was consequently impossible
that there could be a single tippler among those who dwelt on
the sacred mount of the democracy . . . What ! a paltry novelist

fi&OLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 199

dared to insinuate that there were dram-shops in the faubourgs/
The man lied, he insulted M. Gambetta's electors, he could only
be a scoundrel. To the cess-pool with him, sweep him away!
And all the hounds who were waiting for their master to toss
them a hone, all the curs who lived on the crumbs from his table,
executed his orders, and sprang, snarling, after the unlucky
writer. . . . Ah ! I laugh. There suddenly comes a change. . . .
The masses, whose evolution never ceases, grow tired of M.
Gambetta, accuse him of acting contrary to his programme, of
seeking personal enjoyment, of waxing fat in the seat of power
and keeping none of his most express promises, . . . And on the
day when they hoot him, he is maddened by rage, he forgets that
the Eancs and the Floquets have vouched for the temperance of
Belleville, and he furiously calls the electors drunken slaves ! All
brawlers, and all sots !

" Now the author of * L'Assommoir * had not insulted them. He
had never called them squallers or cowards, nor, in particular, had
he threatened to track them to their lairs. ... He was less severe :
he pitied them. . . . Leave the literary men in peace then, you
political gentlemen, you majestic humbugs, who prate with your
tongues in your cheeks, and yet wish to be respected ! You can
see now how shameful it was to heap insults upon a peaceable
writer whose one concern was truth, to hunt him down as if he
had been a common malefactor, and this solely by way of electoral
advertisement ; for directly an obstacle is offered to your own
ambition, you rush upon the masses to suppress them, whereas
the novelist only spoke of curing them. . . . And you, good
people, go and vote for all those humbugs who, so long as you
work for their benefit, promise to give you jam ! You are great,
you are noble, and if a passer-by ventures to advise you to
work, those humbugs declare it to be sacrilege, and hasten to
immolate him before you, to prove to you that you are indeed
perfect. But on the day when you refuse to be duped any
longer, when you claim the jam tjiey have so often promised,
they turn round on you and insult you, call you drunken slaves,
and threaten to have you shot down in your lairs ! With a
fine show of indignation they formerly denied that My-Boots
existed ; but, all at once, if they are to be credited, it is actually

200 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMER
Mj-Boots who reigns as King over a Belleville of brawlers and

The foregoing extracts will give some idea of the passion-
ate vigour which Zola occasionally displayed in controversy.
To some readers it may seem beside the mark to dwell at
length upon a series of newspaper articles like " Une Oam-
pagne/* but it is in such writings, more than in the majority
of his novels, that one finds the real Zola with his superb
confidence in himself, his disregard for conventionalities,
and his glowing passion for truth and rectitude. His pen
was certainly not always so virulent as in the passages one
has quoted, but it was almost invariably incisive, and when
treating sociological subjects it showed that, however im-
personal Ms novels might be, his heart really bled at the
thought of the degradation he described in them. Looking
back, it seems extraordinary that for so many years his
critics, and particularly foreign ones, and among them nota-
bly those of England and America, should have persisted
in the ridiculous assertion that if he pictured filth, it was
solely in order to pander to readers of gross instincts.
His articles, his declarations, his explanations, were all
before the world, and easily accessible ; but through care-
lessness, or laziness, or ignorance, the great majority of
English and American critics never turned to them, and
the legend of the filthy Zola, whose favourite habitat was
the muck heap or the cesspool, spread upon all sides.

The humanitarian purpose, the reforming instinct that
is to be found in Zola, appears clearly in some of the

1 "Tine Campagne,** Abbreviated from the article entitled "Esclaves
Ivres," p, 362 et ««£. Headers of "I/Assommoir" will remember that the
bibulous " My-Boots," referred to above, is one of its principal characteri.

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEB 201

articles contained in " Une I Campagne." The meaning of
" L'Assommoir " is indicated in the passages that have been
quoted here, and light is thrown on some of his subse-
quent works, such as " Nana " and " Pot-Bouille," by the
papers entitled: "The Harlot on the Stage," "How the
Girls grow up," "Adultery in the Middle Classes," " Virtuous
"Women," and "Divorce and Literature.*' Some of those
articles were written apropos of the performance of " Nana,"
which was dramatised by M. Busnach in conjunction with
Zola (whose name, however, did not appear on the bills)
and produced at the Ambigu on January 29, 1881. Zola
tells us there had been no little trouble with the theatrical
censors, who, when the play was submitted to them in
manuscript, deleted the word " night1* wherever it appeared,
and wished to strike out in its entirety the chief scene
between Nana and Count Muffat — a scene of temptation
such as had been given in a score of earlier plays. What
particularly alarmed the censors, according to Zola, was
Nana's consent, the "yes" with which the scene ended;
they wished to substitute some such answer as, " Well, we
will see," which would have been ridiculous.

Edmond de G-oncourt says that the audience at the first
performance was on the whole favourably inclined; but
Zola points out that it was composed of two distinct
elements, on one hand the literary men, friendly or inimi-
cal, who came to judge the play, and on the other the.
faded harlots of Paris, the white-gloved bullies, the men
of pleasure and finance who had sunk to the streets,
in fact all the characters that figured in the play itself,
multiplied fifty times over. And these looked and listened
with pale faces, sneering at the representation of their own

202 SIMILE ZOLA* NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

depravity. However, there was considerable applause when
the play ended; and Zola and Busnach received the con-
gratulations of their friends in the manager's private room,
where Madame Zola, suddenly turning towards her husband,
scolded him for having failed to order any supper to cele-
brate the happy event. "My dear," Zola answered, re-
membering, no doubt, the supper intended to celebrate
the success of " Le Bouton de Bose," which had become a
fiasco, "I'm superstitious, you know, and I'm convinced
that if I had ordered a supper the piece would have
failed."1

It was attacked by the critics on the morrow, some com-
plaining that they had been imposed upon, that they had
been led to expect a masterpiece of revolutionary audacity,
and that only a repugnant play, base and crapulous in its
fidelity to life, had been offered them. Others, of course,
protested against the exhibition of the harlot on the stage ;
and to them Zola responded that he was by no means
the first to set her there. He recalled Victor Hugo, with
* Marion Delorme" and "La Esmeralda " ; Dumas jils, with
" La Dame aux Camillas" ; Barrfere and Thiboust with " Les
Filles de Marbre," and Emile Augier with "Le Mariage
d'Olympe." They and their imitators had lied, however;
they had pictured harlots such as had never existed since
the world was world, and his sin was that he had done
his best to portray such a creature as she really was.
"Besides," he added, "it seems to me cowardice to shun
certain problems under the pretext that they disturb one.
That is turning egotism and hypocrisy into a system. Let
be, people say, let us cover up vice and celebrate virtue

1 "Journal des Goncourt," Vol. VI, p. 134

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 203

even when it is not to be found. ... I have a different
idea of morality. It is not served by rhetorical declamation
but by an accurate knowledge of facts. And therein lies
that Naturalism which provokes so much laughter, and
at which so much mud is foolishly thrown/*

The actress who played the rdle of Nana was L6ontine
Massin. Fair, with a coaxing glance, a sensual mouth and
nose, and a superb figure, she quite looked the part, in spite
of her forty years; and, truth to tell, she had in some
measure lived it. She had also long been known to the
stage in minor rdles ; and now, yielding to her natural
instincts, she sprang to the front, impersonating Nana with
a power and a truth which stirred one deeply. All Paris
flocked to see her. But she was not content with acting.
She became Nana in reality, and her chosen victim was the
manager of the Ambigu, Henri Chabrillat, a bright, talented,
gallant man, who had shown Ms bravery in the Franco-
German War, and his literary skill in half a dozen novels.
Unhappily he was carried away by a mad infatuation for
the temptress; as fast as money poured into his coffers
he squandered it upon her; embarrassment followed, and
when the end came he put a pistol to his head. Never,
perhaps, has the truth of a play, and the disregard of the
passions for the most obvious lessons, been exemplified
more terribly. Amid the uproar which ensued La Massin
vanished, Paris for a week remained lost in amazement,
and then, as always happens, the tragedy was forgotten.

In that same year, 1881, Zola republished in book form
most of the biographical and literary papers which he had
written of recent years. "Le Roman Experimental" had
led the way in 1880, and now there came four more

204 MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

volumes : first *' Les Romanciers Naturalistes," l a series of
papers on Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, Daudet, and the
Goncourts, to which was added the much discussed review
of contemporary novelists ; secondly, " Documents Litt£-
raires: Etudes et Portraits,"2 in which will be found
papers on Chateaubriand, Hugo, Musset, Gautier, George
Sand, Dumas fls, Ste.-Beuve, contemporary poets such as
Leconte de Lisle, Baudelaire, Banville, Oatulle Mend&s,
Bierx, Anatole France, Mallarm^, H&r^dia, Copp^e, Bouchor,
Richepin, and Sully-Prudhomme ; and critics such as Taine,
Pontmartin, Levallois, Babou, Barbey d'Aur^villy, and
Sarcey, with some curious notes on Buloz, the founder of
the famous " R&vue des Deux-Mondes." Next there came
"Le Naturalisme au Th^Htre," divided into two sections,
theory and example; the former including papers on the
special gift alleged to be necessary in all writers for the
stage, on acting, costumes, scenery, government subventions,
eta ; and the latter running through the whole scale of
the playwright's art, tragedy, drama, comedy, vaudeville
and pantomime, with selections from the many articles
which Zola had written as a dramatic critic between 1876
and 1880. Finally there was a fourth volume entitled,
"Nos Auteurs Dramatiques," in which plays by Hugo,
Augier, Dumas fils> Sardou, Labiche, Hal&vy, Gondinet,
Pailleron, D'Ennery, Barri&re, Feuillet, and others, were
analysed and discussed,3

1 Charpentier, 18mo, 338 pagea. Ten copi«s on Dutch paper. The con-
tents first appeared partly in the "Viestnik Yevropi," partly in "Le
Yoltaire."

2 Charpentier, 18mo, 427 pagei. Ten copiea on Dutch paper. The con-
tents of thisrolume also appeared originally in the "Viestnik Yevropi."

* Both volumes mentioned above were issued by Charpentier uniform with
the previous one. Dumas fib, whom Zola criticised with great severity in

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 205

To some of the theories set forth in those four volumes
it may be necessary to refer when we survey Zola's work
generally. The books have been mentioned here because
they were issued at the period we have now reached, and
because it is advisable that the reader should realise how
energetic, how zealous Zola always was, how great was his
versatility, and how strenuous his life. This man who sub-
sequently preached the gospel of work had practised it unre-
mittingly since the day he emerged from Bohemia. Fortune
might frown or success might come, he did not alter in Ms
industrious habits. In spite of every rebuff, every attack, he
continued striving undauntedly, even as his father had
striven before him. He was a living example of the axiom,
that life is a battle. He fought for his ideas, his princi-
ples, without a pause, until his last hour.

" N"os Auteurs Dramatiques," responded by assailing Zola's dramatic theories,
in his preface to " I/lStrangfere." See "Theatre Complet d'AL Dumas j££ "
Paris, Calmann LeVy, 1879. $

VIII

THE BATTLE

1881-1887

"La Joie de Yivre" begun and put aside — " Pot-Bouille " — The outlay at
MMan — Zola*s first franc — His hypochondria and dread of death —
His opinion of drawing-rooms — His idea of writing a book which would
never end — " Au Bonheur des Dames " begun — Zola falls seriously ill
— He recovers and finishes " Au Bonheur des Dames " — " Le Capitaine
Burle ° — The decline of Zolars sales — He is still stage-struck — Alphonse
Daudet and the ITrench Academy — His popularity and friendship with
Zola — " La Joie de Vivre " finished — "Pot-Bouille " as a play — First
ideas of "La Terref* — "Germinal** — Zola among the pitmen — A
charge of plagiarism — The reception of "Germinal " — " L'CEuvre" —
Zola on politicians and young writers — Death of Victor Hugo — Zola's
telegram to George Hugo — "Germinal** forbidden as a play — The
purport of "Germinal" — Zola, humanitarianism, and artistry — Publi-
cation of "LXEuvre** — Zola prepares **La Terre" — A glance at the
French peasantry — Sketch of " La Terre ** by Zola — His tour of inves-
tigation — Various plays: "Le Ventre de Paris," "Renee," Jacques
Dajnour," * * Tout pour lf Honneur, ** — The * ' Manifesto of the Mve ** against
Zola and "La Terre** — Zola's opinion of it — Daudet and Goncourt
unconnected with it — Prolonged denunciation of Zola — M. Lockroy to
the rescue — How Zola became a knight of the Legion of Honour.

IN the year 1881, besides launching the critical volumes
enumerated in the last chapter, Zola carried his Rougoii-
Macquart series a step further. Early in the spring he
planned "La Joie de Yivre," a tale of pain and suffering,
containing numerous autobiographical passages, descriptive
of some of his feelings and peculiarities. But while he was
preparing his notes the recollection of his mother's recent
death constantly pursued him, and he felt it would be
impossible for him at that time to write such a book as he
wished. So, after a few attempts, he decided to postpone

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 207

this particular work. It will be remembered that he had
first intended to make the Rougon-Macquart series one of
eight volumes only. Next, he had decided on twelve, to
which figure he had adhered until the time of "L'Assom-
moir/* But plenty of characters for additional volumes
figured on the leaves of the genealogical tree which he had
long since prepared,1 and now that success had come he felt
that he might extend his series. "Nanaw was its ninth
volume, and he resolved to add eleven more. " La Joie de
Vivre" having been put aside, he was thinking of what
subject he might take in hand when, in the course of his
" Figaro " campaign, he had occasion to write an article on
" Adultery in the Middle Class." The idea that this was the
great evil preying on the 'bourgeoisie seized hold of him, and
he began to prepare the book which he called " Pot-Bouille,"
a title which might be Englished, perhaps, as " The Stockpot/'
and which signifies every-day cuisine and by extension
every-day life. Some of the incidents that he wove into this
work had come under his personal observation, others were
suggested by friends, some of whom also collected special
information which he needed, Huysmans, for instance,
supplying notes about the church of St. Roch, and C&trd
inquiring into diocesan architects, government clerks, judges,
and others, their earnings, their duties, their pensions, and
so forth.2

Begun at M6dan, continued at Grandcamp on the
Norman coast, whither Zola betook himself during the

1 He had shown it at a very early stage to Ms friends Huysmans and
Ce*ard, and the former has recorded how greatly they were amazed "by it
("Le Matin," September 30, 1902.)

3 Sherard (I. c., 188 et seq) gives a variety of information on these points
taken from Zola's letters to a friend whose name does not appear.

208 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

summer, and eventually finished at MSdaa in the autumn,
"Pot-Bouille" first appeared, somewhat bowdlerised, in "Le
Gatilois/' which paid the author thirty thousand francs l for
the serial rights. But even Zola's best friends did not re-
ceive the work very favourably. In writing it he had made
a trial of his own scientific formula, keeping his descriptions
as short as possible, dividing the narrative into acts, as it
were, like a play, curbing his fancy throughout, allowing
no exuberance of style ; and he was afterwards amazed to
find so many cavillers. " It is the clearest and most con-
densed of my novels/7 he wrote to a friend early in 1882.2
Nevertheless, this time the public seemed to share the
opinion of the critics. The sale of " Pot-Bouille " in vol-
ume form 8 was much smaller than that of " L'Assommoir "
and "Nana,w a circumstance which is worthy of note, for
Zola's adversaries had argued that if "Nana" had sold so
largely it was solely on account of all the depravity depicted
in its pages. But here was a book which, in that respect,
actually surpassed * If ana," and yet it had nothing like the
same sale. It has been suggested by way of explanation
that middle-class people were the chief purchasers of Zola's
works, and that while they appreciated his delineation of
depravity among others, they were offended by his descrip-
tion of it among themselves. In that respect " Pot-Bouille "
certainly brought Zola some worry ; for as a gentleman of

l £1,200 = about $6, 000.

* Sherard, L c., p. 193.

8 " Pot-Bouille," Paris, Charpentier, 1882, 18mo, 499 pages ; some copies
on Dutch, India, and Japanese paper; eighty-second thousand in 1893,
ninety-fifth thousand in 1903. Illustrated edition: Marpon and Mamma-
rion, 1883, large 8vo, titles, 452 pages. Fifty-seven wood-engravings after
Bellanger and Kaiifrmann, Sold also in parts at 10 centimes. One hun-
dred special copies on Dutch paper with the engravings on India paper.

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 209

the law declared he recognised himself in a certain char-
acter, legal proceedings supervened, and Zola had to make
certain alterations in his work.

Shortly before the publication of ** Pot-Bouille/* Edmond
de Goncourt had suggested to Zola that their monthly
dinners, abandoned since the death of Flaubert, might be
resumed, and Zola, like Tourgeneff and Alphonse Daudet,
immediately assented. Goncourt, by the way, would seem
to have then seen little of Zola for some time past He
mentions that he read the first chapters of his novel, * La
Faustin," to the Zolas, the Daudets, H£r&dia, Gharpentier,
and the "young men of M6dan," on which occasion he was
amazed to find that the passages based on study and
research produced no effect on his little audience, whereas
the chapters in which he had relied on Ms imagination car-
ried them away. And he was particularly amused when
Zola declared that a certain imaginary Greek, called Atha-
asiadas, must really have been drawn from the life.1 A
little later, when Goncourt, the Daudets, and Charpentier
visited Zola at M^dan, they found that he had already spent
two hundred thousand francs on his house there, besides
buying one of the islands on the Seine near the property
and building a chalet on it In talking of those matters,
Zola evinced a superb contempt for money. It was Im-
possible for him to hoard, he said ; he remembered the first
franc-piece given him when he was a very little boy. He
had immediately gone to buy a purse, which had cost him
nineteen sous, in such wise that he had only one sou left
to put in it.2

i "Journal des Goncourt," YoL VI, p. 140.
3 Ibid., p. 162.

210 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

When the monthly "Diner des Autetirs Siffl&s" was
resumed in March, 1882, the two stock subjects of conver-
sation, says Goncourt, were death and love. And the
hypochondriasis from which Zola was suffering, which had
declared itself at the time of his mother's death and had
recently compelled him to put " La Joie de Yivre " aside,
now "became painfully manifest. An unreasoning fear of
death, and, it would seem, even of suffering pursued him.
Somewhat later ( in 1885 ) and apropos of the terrible, lin-
gering death of Jules Vall&s, who in the midst of a friendly
conversation would suddenly blanch with dread as if he
could see death approaching him, Zola said to Goncourt:
" Ah ! to be struck down suddenly, as Flaubert was, that is
the death one should desire,"1 This wish, we know, was
ultimately granted. But in 1882, according to Goncourt,
Zola, who believed that he had a complaint of the heart, was
tortured by the idea of <*a sudden and violent death which
would fall upon him before he had finished his work."
Again, we know that such a fate did ultimately befall him ;
but Goncourt tells us that, at the period we have now
reached, the thought of it haunted him to such a degree
that "since the death of his mother, whose coffin it had
been necessary to bring down by way of the window (there
being only a narrow, winding staircase at M6dan, in spite of
all its embellishments), he had never since been able to set
eyes on that window without wondering who would soon be
lowered from it, himself or his wife. ' Yes/ he said, ' since
that day the thought of death is always lurking in our
minds. We now invariably keep a light burning in our bed-
room, and very often, when I look at my wife before she

1 "Journal des Goncourt," YoL YII, p. 11.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 211

falls asleep, I feel that she is thinking of it even as I am.
And we remain like that, a certain feeling of delicacy pre-
venting us from making any allusion to what we are both
thinking of. Oh ! the thought is terrible I There are nights
when I suddenly spring out of bed on both feet, and remain
for a moment in a state of indescribable fright.' " l

And this, it will be observed, was the leading French
novelist of the time, a man in the prime of life, whose name
was already known all over the world, who had risen from
poverty to affluence, and who, if attacked by some, was also
envied by thousands !

A few days after telling his friends how he suffered at the
thought of death, Zola gave a diner Jin at his Paris residence.
There was great display; and Goncourt tells us that the
menu included potage au IU vert, reindeers' tongues, mullet
& la Proven$ale, and truffled guineafowl.2 But Zola was still
out of sorts. Success had no charms for him, he said, and,
in his estimation, literature was a mere dog's trade. Less
than a month afterwards, on April 6, the day when " Pot-
Bouille ' was published, and when the first orders seemed to
indicate a large demand for the book, Goncourt met Zola
again and found him as morose as ever. The truth would
appear to be that he resented some of the criticisms already
levelled at his work. He kept on growling, and finally ex-
claimed that it was not so necessary to have had actual
experience of things as some folk imagined ; and as for in-
cessant reading, well, he had not the time for it. " Society ? "
he added, " why, what does a drawing-room reveal of life ?
It shows one nothing at all ! I have five and twenty men

1 "Journal des Goncourt," Vol. VI, p. 186 (March 6, 1882).
a A somewhat similar dinner is described in " L'OEuvre."

212 laULB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

now working at M6dan who teach me a hundred times more
than any drawing-room would teach me."

Again on April 18, when lunching with Madame Zola at
Goncourf s, he was full of spleen, complaining of a score
of worries, and notably of some plot, engineered by sundry
members of the French Academy, to stop the circulation of
* Pot-Bouille." He had now already begun to write the
next instalment of the Rougon-Macquarts, that is, "Au
Bonheur des Dames," but according to his statements to
G-oncourt, this story really had no great attraction for him.
He dreamt of undertaking some work which he would never
be able to finish, he said, something which would give
him occupation, and at the same time enable him to retire
from the every-day battle without saying so — for instance,
some colossal and endless history of French literature. In
July that same year — 1882 — when Goncourt, Daudet, and
Charpentier were at M^dau, Zola reiterated his dissatisfac-
tion with " Au Bonheur des Dames." His previous success
had spoilt his life, he declared; he would never again be
able to write a book which would make as much stir as
" L' Assomnioir " or command such a multitude of readers
as "Nana."1

Writing to a friend a fortnight previously, he had evinced
less pessimism. Indeed, though he referred to "Au Bon-
heur des Dames " as a tour de force which would end by
disgusting people "with the complicated state of French
literature," he had expressed himself as being generally
satisfied, and as enjoying the solitude in which he found
himself at M&Ian, for it lent him great lucidity of mind.
But it is certain that his nerves were overstrained, and that
i "Journal des Goncourt,1* Vol. YI, p. 209.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEB 213

Goncourt's opinion of his condition was accurate ; for a little
later, in August, he collapsed and had to cease work entirely.
His friends were very much alarmed, for his weakness be-
came extreme and a fatal issue seemed possible. But his
constitution slowly triumphed over that nervous prostration,
and at the end of October, one finds him writing to a
friend : " I am a little better. I have been able to get back
to work. Nevertheless I am not at all strong. I fancy
that something very grave brushed past me but spared
me. . . . How heavy is the pen! For the next two or
three years I ought to lead the life of an idiot [i. e. a purely
animal life without mental exertion] in order to recover my
strength. I have become such a coward that the prospect
of having to finish my book terrifies me." l

But he compelled himself to resume it, for as is well
known he regarded work as the panacea for all evils, physi-
cal as well as mental. Thus, by the middle of November,
he was able to announce that he had taken up his task
again with a sufficiency of courage and intellectual health-
It was about this time that M. Charpentier published a vol-
ume of his short stories, previously contributed to various
periodicals.2 Moreover " Au Bonheur des Dames " was now
appearing serially in the " Gil Bias," which paid twenty

1 Sherard, /. c., p. 196.

a "Le Capitaine Burle," Paris, Charpentier, 18mo; title-pages "bear the
date 1883, "but the book really appeared late in 1882. Besides the story
which gave the volume its title, the following figured in it : " Comment on
meurt," "Pour une Nuit d' Amour," "Le F§te a Coqueville," "L'lnonda-
tion." " Le Capitaine Burle " first appeared in " La Tie Moderne," February,
1881; and the others in "Le Voltaire," 1880. Of the volume twenty-five
copies were printed on India, and fifty on Dutch paper. Marpon and Flam-
marion added "Le Capitaine Burle " to their illustrated edition of " Therese
Kaquin "; and under various titles the other stories figure in their " Collection
des Auteurs celebres."

214 iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

thousand francs for the right of publication, or two-thirds
of the amount which it had given for " Pot-Bouille." " Au
Bonheur des Dames " had naturally necessitated considerable
preliminary study and investigation in order that a truthful
picture might be presented of the trade of a great city, as
exemplified by one of those huge drapery establishments,
— the Louvre, the Bon Harelip tod the Printemps. Some
such leviathan, devouring all the small fry around it and
teeming with restless life, was depicted in Zola's pages,
which introduced the reader to a world of counter-jumpers
beneath whose superficial gloss lay much rank brutishness.
And the subject also embraced the hard, the often cruel
lot of the girls employed in such places, the ambition
and commercial daring of the master, and the ways of all
the customers, not forgetting the kleptomaniacs. But
though the book was full of interest of a particular kind
and deserved the attention of all thinking people, it was
perhaps scarcely one to fascinate the great majority of
readers. Zola finished it at the end of January, 1883,
and in March it was published by M. Charpentier.1 Most
of the newspapers dealt with it sharply; and Schdrer,
the Protestant critic of "Le Temps," still smarting from
the attacks which Zola had made upon the French Pro-
testants, their alleged self-righteousness and narrow big-

*"Au Bonheur des Dames," Paris, Charpentier, 1883, 18mo, 525 pages.
Some copies on Japanese and some on Dutch paper. Fifty-ninth thousand
reached in 1893; seventy-fifth thousand in 1903. This would seem to have
been the first of Zola's works of which a translation appeared in England.
This translation was made "by Mr. Frank Turner, subsequently secretary to
General Boulanger; it was first issued in a weekly periodical, which the present
writer believes to have been "The London Reader," and was afterwards
published in book form by Tinsley Brothers. Tizetelly & Co. acquired the
copyright and ultimately sold it to E. A. Vizetelly, who transferred it to
Hutchinson & Co,

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 215

otry, during his " Figaro n campaign, revengefully described
the book as " the attempt of an illiterate individual to lower
literature to his own level." l The general public did not
take very kindly to the work. With " Pot-Bouille " there had
at least been a moment when a very large sale had seemed
probable, but the demand for "Au Bonheur des Dames"
was distinctly moderate, and the wiseacres of the bookselling
world opined that Zola, after going up like a rocket, might
presently come down like a stick. It is true that the sudden
and melodramatic death of Gambetta a short time previously
(December 31, 1882) had left the French political world in
some confusion ; and it is known that the bookselling trade
invariably suffers when there is any political unrest. Yet
the conditions of the time did not sufficiently explain the
drop in the demand for Zola's writings.

Goncourt, who met him a short time after the publication
of "Au Bonheur des Dames," found him lugubrious. "The
big sales are all over," said he, in much the same tone as
a Trappist might have ejaculated the customary greeting,
"Brother, one must die/' Nevertheless, though he had
several excellent subjects in his mind, — books which under
favourable circumstances might well have compelled a re-
newal of public attention, — he deliberately postponed them,
and turned to a work which he must have known would
appeal to only a small audience, that study of suffering,
egotism, and sacrifice which he called satirically " La Joie
de Vivre," and which he had put aside in 1881.

After all, in Ms estimation apparently, it mattered little
what book he took in hand, for as he remarked to G-oncourt
at the Com^die Frangaise on the night of the revival of

1 Schte's "Etudes sur la Literature Contemporaine," Yol. VII, p. 240,

216 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse" (November 23, 1882),
novels were always the same thing over and over again ; and
it would only be possible to take an interest in the writing
of them if one could invent a new form. Personally his
great desire was an opportunity to produce a play, one really
all his own. In a word he was as stage-struck as ever, and
it seemed unlikely that he would feel content until he had
criven the world an acknowledged dramatic masterpiece.
That comparative disregard for the work for which one is
best fitted, that craving to excel in something else, and to
be praised for it, has appeared in many men, in various
degrees and ways. There was Thackeray, who always
longed to see his drawings commended ; there was Ingres,
who courted more applause for his proficiency as a violinist
than for his gifts as a painter.

At the opening of the Salon of 1883, Zola lunched with
Daudet and Goncourt; and Daudet unbosoming himself,
as was often his wont, solicited the advice of his friends as
to whether he should offer himself as a candidate for the
French Academy. Both Zola and Goncourt urged him to
do so, and there was no reason why they should have acted
otherwise, for he had many chances in his favour. He
occupied a high position as a novelist, and though nowadays
no thinking critic can place him in the same rank as Zola,
he was at that time far more popular, for if, here and there,
he had lampooned one or another individual in his books, he
had never given anything like the offence which Zola had
given in many directions.

It may be said, perhaps, that in 1883 Alphonse Daudet
had reached the height of his reputation. In any case his
best work was already done. His novel, " Le Nabab," pub-

SIMILE ZOLA— NOVELIST AND REFORMER 217

lished in 1878, had been followed the next year by " Les Rois
en Exil," and in 1880 by " Numa Roumestan," which would
seem to mark the apogee of his career, for a decline was
already observable in " L'Evangfliste," published in 1882,
and although "Sapho/1 issued two years later, sold pro-
digiously, it was not really a great book in the opinion of
the present writer, who, cast young into the vortex of Paris,
knows something of the existence depicted in Daudet's pages,
and has always held that picture to be artificial, untrue to
nature in many essential respects, and absolutely deficient
in depth. Indeed "Sapho" is a mere skimming of the
surface; it never probes. But when all is said, Daudet
could be an admirable story-teller when he chose, and the
very gifts, which on one hand led to some adverse criti-
cisni) — kis veneer of poetry, his sentimentality, his inclina-
tion to moralise, — won him favour far and wide among
people of average intellects.

As was suggested earlier in these pages, Daudet brought
a feminine talent into competition with the masculine talent
of Zola. Each had his champions in the Parisian world of
those days, and nothing would have given some folk greater
pleasure than a fierce battle for supremacy between the two
men who had become the most widely read novelists of their
time. But as a matter of fact they were the best of friends.
One has only to glance at Zola's collected essays to see how
he praised some of Daudet's writings ; while on consulting
the pages of Goncourt's <e Journal" one will find the two
rivals constantly together, dining and lunching and making
excursions. Daudet frequently went to M&Ian, where he
boated on the Seine, singing gaily while he rowed, for his
health was still good, his spirits were still those of the

218 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

joyous South, all brightness and geniality, which often
helped to dispel his friend's hypochondria. That he was
worthy of a place in the French Academy goes without say-
ing, and it was only natural that he should have thought
of offering himself as a candidate and have solicited his
friends' advice. But, as will be remembered, his views on
the subject changed entirely; he allowed it to be known
that he regarded the Academy as beneath his notice, and
then, in a contradictory spirit, went out of his way to
lampoon it in a third-rate book, " L'lmmorteL" As for
Zola, in 1883 there could be no question of an Academical
seat for him. He was still in the midst of his battle, with
his work only half done.

His novel "La Joie de Vivre," begun at M^dan, was
written chiefly amid the wild, primitive surroundings of the
Anse de Benodet* a creek on the rocky coast of Finistkre ;
but the scene of the book was laid on the Norman shore,
between St. Aubin and Grandcamp, where Zola had stayed
in previous years. In Lazare Chanteau, the "hero" of his
stoiy, he depicted much of his own hypochondria, at which
he had already glanced in a tale called " La Mort d'Olivier
B^caille." Lazare's fear of death, his petty superstitions, his
irresolution, were all based on Zola's personal experience.
So gray a work, which only the devotion and self-sacrifice
of Pauline, the heroine, occasionally brightens, could not at-
tract the mass of the reading public. It was published first
by the " Gil Bias," which again paid twenty thousand francs
for the serial rights ; but when it appeared as a volume its
sales were small1 In fact, from the standpoint of circula-

1 " La Joie de Yivre," Paris, Charpentier, 18mo, 451 pages ; some early
copies dated 1883, others 1884, when (February) it would appear to have been

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER 219

tion, Zola now relapsed into the position he had occupied
before " L'Assommoir."

But he had made a fresh effort as a playwright, having
prepared a dramatic version of " Pot-Bouille," in conjunc-
tion with M. Busnach. This, which was produced at the
Ambigu Theatre on December 13, 1883, proved less success-
ful than its forerunners, "L'Assommoir" and "Nana," and
Zola, in a grumpish mood, decided to remain at " the mill,"
that is, write another novel. This time, however, he hesi-
tated awhile as to his subject. Among those he had
selected for consideration was the railway world, but he
was still at a loss how he might work it into a novel. It
would be better to turn to the peasantry, to whom he
must certainly devote a book; and so, after telling Gon-
court that his next novel would be called " La Terre," and
that in order to obtain the requisite local colour he would
have to spend at least a month on a farm in La Beauce,
he asked his friend if it would be possible to procure him
a letter of recommendation from some large landowner
to one of his farmers, *who might be willing to give a
lodging to a lady in poor health and in need of country air.
The lady in question — Madame Zola — would naturally
be accompanied by her husband, and, added Zola, a double-
bedded room with whitewashed walls would be ample
accommodation, though it must be arranged that he and
his wife should take their meals with the farmer and his
family, for otherwise he would learn virtually nothing.1
He realised, apparently, that folks unbutton themselves

really published. Some copies were on Japan, India, and Dutch paper.
Forty-fourth thousand in 1893 on completion of the Rougon-Macquart series ;
fifty-fourth thousand in 1903.

l " Journal des Goncourt," Vol. VI, p. 288 (January 16, 1884).

220 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEE

(in the figurative sense) more readily at meal-time than
at any other.

Goncourt was unable to help his friend in this matter,
at all events immediately; so Zola turned to another
subject which he mentioned on the same occasion, that
of a strike in a mining district, such as was in progress
among the pitmen of northern France at that very moment.
Forthwith he started for the scene of the trouble. "At
Valenciennes since Saturday, among the strikers, who are
remarkably calm," he wrote in February, 1884. " A splen-
did country as a scene for my book," This time his subject
fairly carried him away. " He spent," says Mr. Sherard,
" the best part of six months in travelling about, note-book
in hand, through the various mining districts of the north
of France and of Belgium, interviewing miners, exploring
mines from pit-mouth to lowest depths, attending political
meetings among the miners, studying various types of
Socialist lecturers, drinking horrible beer and still more
horrible brandy in the forlorn cabarets of the corons [miners'
villages], interrogating miners' wives, and wandering about
the fields in the neighbourhood of these corons to watch
the lads and lassies taking their poor pastimes when the
day's drudgery was over."1

Some eight or nine years subsequently, Mr. Sherard,
on visiting the Borinage, as the coal district round Mons
is called, fell in with an old porion or " viewer " who had
acted as one of Zola's guides, and who pronounced him
to have been the most inquisitive gentleman he had ever
met. Never had he known anybody who asked more
questions, said he, unless, indeed, it were an investigating

* Sherard, 1. <?., p. 203.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 221

magistrate. Mr. Sherard mentions also that "Germinal"
— for that was the book which proceeded from Zola's
sojourn among the pitmen — was known in every mining
village which he visited. There was not a coron where
at least one well-thumbed copy of the work could not
be found : a proof of the appreciation in which it was held
by the toilers on whose behalf it had been written.

The preliminary study which "Germinal" necessitated,
the long sojourn among new and strange scenes, the strong
interest, the compassion roused by all Zola saw and heard,
most certainly proved very beneficial to him, reinvigorating
him, checking his hypochondriacal tendency, diverting his
mind from self, renewing and enlarging his ideas. Thus
he was again in possession of physical and mental strength
when he began the actual writing of the book. Like his
more recent novels it was published en feuilleton by the
" Gil Bias " ; 1 and an English version, prepared by Mr.
Albert Vandam, appeared in a London weekly newspaper,
" The People." 2

While the serial issue was in progress Zola was once
again accused of plagiarism. This time he was said to have
borrowed the idea of " Germinal " from a story called w Le

1 About this time, that is late in 1884, there appeared another volume of
Zola's short stories : "Nais Micoulin," Paris, Gharpentier, 18mo, 384 pages;
twenty-five copies on India, one hundred on Dutch paper. Besides " Nais"
the volume contained : " Kantas," " La Mort d'Olivier Be~eaille," " Madame
Neigeon," "Les Coquillages de M. Chabre," and "Jacques Damour." All
these tales will also be found in Marpon and Flammarion's popular " Col-
lection des Auteurs cel&bres."

3 Under date November 20, 1884, Zola sold all his rights in "Germinal »
for Great Britain to Mr. W. T* Madge, manager of " The People/* Yizetelly
& Co. acquired book rights from the latter and published a fuller transla-
tion. Their rights were subsequently purchased by E. A. Vizetelly and sold
by him to Chatto and Windus.

222 tmLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Grisou" (" Firedamp '*), by M. Maurice Talmeyre — a story
which likewise dealt with the coalpits of northern France,
and which when published a few years previously had at-
tracted some attention, being full of interest and written
with literary ability. But the idea that Zola had stolen his
idea of " Germinal " from it was ridiculous. It had been
pointed out long since by Alexis that he proposed to add
a second volume on the masses to the study he had made
of them in " L'Assommoir," intending on the second occa-
sion to deal more particularly with their social and political
aspirations. That intention was partially carried into effect
in "Germinal," and the idea of laying the scene of his
story in the "black country" of northern France was
a sudden inspiration which came to Zola when he found
it difficult to proceed immediately with his proposed work
on some of the French peasantry — an inspiration which
was not derived from M. Talmeyre's book at all, but from
the circumstance that some thousands of pitmen were on
strike at that very time.

Surely no author can claim a monopoly of any subject
or any locality. One writer, for instance, may lay a scene
in Regent Street; another is equally entitled to do so;
and in the result there may well be some resemblance
between their descriptions of the thoroughfare. More-
over, in giving an account of any form of life, all writers
are confronted by the same essential facts. They may
regard them, interpret them, differently, but each must
take them into account, Thus if somewhat similar scenes
and corresponding facts figure occasionally in " Le Grisou "
and " Germinal " it does not follow that the second is stolen
from the first. But Zola, unfortunately, was a much-hated

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 223

man, and the flimsiest peg was good enough for his enemies.
As a matter of fact, with respect to " Germinal/* he gave
nearly six months to personal study of his suhject on the
spot, and though he derived a few incidents, as he was
well entitled to do, from officially recorded instances of the
horrors and dangers of the pitman's life,1 Ms work well
deserved to be regarded not only as an original one but
even as a livre vecu. When " Germinal " appeared as a
volume there was a large demand for it, though its circula-
tion did not approach that of " I/Assommoir " or " Nana."
This has surprised several writers on Zola, who hold
"Germinal" to be his masterpiece; but it has already
been pointed out in these pages that his sales had been
declining for some time past, books like " Pot-BouiUe "
having angered many of his readers. It was hardly to
be expected that he would regain all his lost ground at
one leap, and under the circumstances the reception given
to " Germinal " was distinctly cheering. Moreover, whereas
there had been no popular illustrated edition of " Au Bon-
heur des Dames " or " La Joie de Vivre," one of " Germinal"
in parts soon made its appearance, and sold very widely,
in such wise that the full extent of the book's circulation
cannot be gauged by M. Charpentier's printings.2

1 For instance, the horrible experiences of ^tienne Lantier in the Voreux
pit towards the close of the "book were based on those of a miner walled np in
a Lyons pit in 1854, and on those of a pitman of the Gard, described by M.
Parran, an engineer, in the " Bulletin de la Societe* de Hndustrie Minerale."
That narrative suggested the idea of the floating corpse in the inundated mine.

3 "Germinal," Paris, Charpentier, 1885, ISrao, 581 pages. Eighty-eighth
thousand in 1893 j one hundred and tenth thousand in 1903. Some copies
on Japanese, Dutch, and India papers. Illustrated edition : Paris, Llbrairie
Illustre'e, n, d., quarto, titles, five hundred pages ; wood-engravings after
Pe*rat ; one hundred and fifty copies on Dutch paper. This edition like
others is now sold by E. Elammarion, successor of Marpon and Elanimarion,
Eue Eacine, Paris..

224 iftMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOBMEE

The next work which Zola took in hand was " L'GEuvre,"
the most autobiographical of all his novels, and one for
which he had no need to collect documents, for his mate-
rials were stored away in his memory. A little of his hypo-
chondria had now returned to him, and the writing of
** Germinal " having compelled him to give some attention
to politics, he did not cease to rail at politicians. At the
" Henriette Marshal " anniversary dinner (May 6, 1885) he
made quite a sortie against them, declaring that they were
the sworn foes of literary men, in which opinion Edmond de
Goncourt cordially agreed. About that time " L'Assommoir "
was revived as a play, and at a dinner given at the Maison
Dor^e to celebrate the event, Zola turned from the politi-
cians to rate some of the young authors of the time, their
alacrity of speech, and on the other hand their unwillingness
to take the trouble of writing, unless they were positively
assured of publication. One of these young men, said
Zol% would expound an idea that had come to him, depict
in glowing terms all the interest which such or such a book
would have, and then conclude coldly : " Ah ! if a publisher
would only order it of me ! " For young men of that stamp
there was no question of striving. They would work to
order or not at all. Thus literature was becoming a mere
commercial pursuit.

On May 22, 1885, France lost her great poet, Victor Hugo.
He had been sinking for some time ; nevertheless the news
that he was really dead quite startled Paris, During his
last illness he had declined the ministrations of " any priest
of any religion," and the announcement that he would be
buried without rites or prayers angered the Church party
exceedingly, and led to unseemly scenes in the Chamber of

4->
CC

.59

!S
.5

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEB 225

Deputies when It was proposed that the Pantheon should
be restored to its former destination as the resting-place of
the great men of Trance, and that Hugo's remains should
be laid in it This proposal having been shelved by the
Chamber, the popular indignation became so great that
President Gr^vy virtually took the law into his own hands,
and issued a decree in accordance with public opinion.
The obsequies became a great anticlerical demonstration.
Of course, for years past, many free-thinkers had been buried
without the celebration of religious rites; but there had
been only a few great secular public funerals, such as that
of Fdlicien David, the composer, in 1876, later that of
M. Harold, Prefect of the Seine, and, later still, that of
Gambetta. The enterrement civil of Victor Hugo marked
another step in the same direction and it impressed thou-
sands. More, even, than any of its forerunners, it set an
example largely followed in later years.

When Zola heard of the death of Hugo he felt deeply
stirred. He remembered the days of long ago, the happy
days of -Provence when he had learnt by heart page after
page of the poet's writings. He had then drunk deeply of
Hugo's sonorous rhetoric, and he had not ceased to admire
his genius. The virtual failure of " Le Hoi s'amuse " when
it was revived in 1882 had pleased him from the Naturalist
standpoint; yet he had not concealed his opinion that
many passages of the play deserved applause, and in fact
he had applauded them. "Why not, indeed?" he had
ejaculated, turning to Edmond de Goncourt whQ had ac-
companied him to the Th&ltre Frangais. And whatever
criticism Zola had levelled at the productions of Hugo's
declining years, whatever reservations he might make re-

226 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

specting even some of the poet's prime, he knew that this
man had been a Master, the most powerful that his age
had produced in France, So Zola immediately despatched
the following telegram to M. George Hugo, the poets young
grandson:

You will learn, perhaps, some day, Monsieur, that even with
respect to Victor Hugo, I claimed the rights of criticism. And
this is why, amid the frightful grief that has befallen you, I desire
to tell you that every heart has broken with yours.

Victor Hugo was my youth. I remember what I owe him.
ISTo discussion is possible on such a day as this ; all hands must
unite, all the writers of France must rise to do honour to a
Master, and affirm the absolute triumph of literary genius.

Pray believe, Monsieur, in my deep and dolorous sympathy,

]§MILE ZOLA.1
' PARIS, May 22, 1885.

Besides writing his novel "L'QEuvre" that year, Zola
helped M, Busnach to adapt "Germinal" for the stage;
but when the play was ready in the autumn, the censor-
ship forbade its performance on the ground that it would
excite revolutionary passions. Zola's indignation boiled
over at this rebuff, and with the approval of Alphonse
Daudet and Edmond de Goncourt, whom he consulted, he
issued a protest in " Le Figaro," trouncing M. Ken£ Goblet,
the responsible Minister, a fussy little advocate who played
the part of a Radical when it suited his purposes, but who
was really a Philistine dans I'&me. However, the protest
had no effect, nor had an offer to allow all reasonable altera-
tions in the play for the sake of M. Busnach, whose interests
were chiefly at stake ; and it was only in the spring of 1888,
1 From the original draught in the possession of M. G. Charpentier.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 227

when other ministers were in office, that " Germinal * was at
last produced at the Th&ltre du Ch&telet. It may be con-
venient to mention here that for some years subsequent to
the publication of " Germinal" as a novel there was never a
strike in France without some foolish and prejudiced jour-
nalists casting the blame on Zola and his book. When in
1887 D^cazeville became the scene of some terrible dis-
turbances, Zola was charged in many directions — even in
the Chamber of Deputies by some of its reactionary mem-
bers— with the responsibility of those misfortunes. He
disdained to reply to such ridiculous accusations ; but it so
happened that a few months previously (December 27,
1886) when authorising " Le Petit Rouennais " to publish
" Germinal " serially, he had written the following prefatory
note, in which he explained the book's real purport, which
of course had never been doubtful for sensible minds :

" * Germinal ? is a work of compassion, not a revolutionary work.
In writing it my desire was to cry aloud to the happy ones of this
world, to those who are the masters : ' Take heed 1 Look under-
ground, observe all those unhappy beings toiling and suffering
there. Perhaps there is still time to avoid a great catastrophe.
But hasten, to act justly, for, otherwise, the peril is there : the
earth will open, and the nations will be swallowed up in one of the
most frightful convulsions known to the world's history.'

" I descended into the hell of Labour, and if I concealed noth-
ing, not even the degradation of that sphere, the shameful things
engendered by misery and the huddling of human beings together
as if they were mere cattle, it was because I wished the picture to be
complete, with all its abominations, so as to draw tears from every
eye at the spectacle of such a dolorous and pariah-like existence.
Those things, no doubt, are not for young girls, but family people
should read me. All of you who work, read what I have written,

228 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

and when you raise your voices for pity and justice my task will
be accomplished.

** Yes, a cry of pity, an appeal for justice, I ask no more. Should
the soil still crack, should the disasters predicted convulse the
world to-morrow, it will be because my voice will have remained
unheard."

Thus, in " Germinal," Zola gave rein to his humanita-
rian feelings, and in recognition thereof prudes shrieked
indignantly : " That man is at it again I What a beast he
must be ! " And on their side capitalists, battening on the
labour of the poor and alarmed for the safety of their pelf,
howled in chorus : " This book ought to be suppressed, it
certainly must not be allowed as a play. It means revolu-
tion, robbery, rascality of every kind."

But Zola, though he suffered secretly, — all unjust at-
tacks brought him the keenest suffering, — hid it, and
passed on.

There was a touch of humanitarianism even in his next
book, " L'GEuvre," for it set forth, many of the evils of bohe-
mian life, and embraced an appeal for woman in the person
of the unhappy Christine, its heroine. Critics may shake
their heads, indeed some have done so, and say sapiently:
" All this was not art." They may laugh, too, at the idea of
reforming the world by novels. But even if, judging Zola
by some of his books, one may occasionally feel inclined to
set no very lofty estimate on his artistry, surely the trend
of his works, the knowledge of their aim, the circumstances
tinder which they were written, must increase one's respect
for their author as a man. And, after all, what is the mere
artist? As often as not he is penned within a fanatical
creed, bound to narrow formulas, blind to everything beyond

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEPOEMER 229

them, full of prejudice, and even more ridiculous at times
than the Philistines at whom he rails.

As " L'GEuvre" dealt chiefly with the art-world of Paris
at a certain period of the Second Empire, it revived some of
the passions which Zola had kindled by his championship
of Manet. By certain painters the book was roundly
abused when M. Charpentier published it early in 1886, *
on the completion of the issue in the "Gil Bias/' This
time the demand was not great, for by its nature <e I/CEuvre "
appealed more particularly to a limited class of readers.
Perhaps its sales would have been even smaller had not
Zola woven into his narrative so much interesting informa-
tion concerning himself in his earlier years.

No sooner was he delivered of this book than he turned to
the novel on the French peasantry which had been in his
mind at the beginning of 1884. Already at that time he
had given it considerable thought, made notes, studied his
subject in books and periodicals ; and he now took up the
work of preparation in i^eal earnest. At the very outset he
had decided to lay the scene in or near the great grain-pro-
ducing region of La Beauce, in some degree because this
would enable him to deal, en passant, with certain economic
questions, such as the importation of American wheat, but
more particularly because both his mother and his grand-
mother, Madame Aubert, had been Beauceronnes, and in his
younger days he had often heard them talk of that part of
the country, which presents various features of interest.

1 "L'CEuvre," Paris, Charpentier, 1886, 18mo, 491 pages. Some copies
on special papers. Fifty-fifth, thousand in 1893 ; sixty-fourth thousand in
1903. Mr. Albert Vandam prepared an English adaptation of this story
which was published serially in England, and afterwards acquired by Vize-
telly & Co. It formed the basis of their version of the work.

230 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEE

La Beauce proper is certainly flat and monotonous, but its
confines are picturesque, and Dourdan, Auneau, Org&res, and
other localities are associated historically with the horrible
crimes of the desperadoes known as chauffeurs, who roamed
the region early in the nineteenth century. A strain of
brutishness was long to be observed among some of the in-
habitants. Withal, they are essentially French, that is of
the borders of the lie de France, for there is no fixed type of
French peasant. Those of Provence, Languedoc, Burgundy,
Normandy, Brittany, and other parts, all differ from one
another in important characteristics. Thus generalisations
on the subject of the French peasantry may occasionally
become ridiculous.

Nevertheless, at the period selected for Zola's work, that
of the Second Empire, a general resemblance was to be found
among them in two respects. In the first place their igno-
rance was very great. The Imperial Government which did
a good deal to ameliorate their lot materially, did as little as
possible to enlighten and elevate their minds. They were,
so to say, the backbone of the regime, and their ignorance
was its safeguard At the elections they were led like sheep
to the polling places to vote for the official candidates. All
that, however, belongs to the past. Many changes have
occurred during the last thirty years, and without entering
here into the question of the religious and secular schools, it
may be said that under the Third Eepublic more has been
done than at any previous time for the education of the
peasantry. Some brutishness persists in various regions,
but all who remember how widespread was illiteracy before
the War of 1870 know that great improvement has been
effected.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 231

Today, however, even as was formerly the case, there is
still one trait common to the French peasantry generally.
As in other countries there has been, and is still, a great
exodus from the rural districts to the towns ; but those who
remain at home are distinguished by their earth-hunger,
their all-consuming passion for the soil The historical
explanation of this is perhaps as follows : For centuries the
peasantry possessed little or nothing, and when the Kevolu-
tion at last placed the land in their hands absolutely, a
craving which had descended from generation to generation
was satisfied. They seized the land eagerly, they clung to
it fiercely, fearful lest it should be taken from them, as,
for instance, when the Bourbons returned, and many of the
old nollesse sought the resumption of their estates. And old-
time feelings, the covetous cravings of ancestors, the desper-
ate tenacity of the generation of 1815, have descended to
the peasants of to-day, and were perhaps even stronger
among those of the Second Empire, with whom Zola pro-
posed to deal in his novel " La Terre."

It was in part on the peasant's brutish ignorance, and
more particularly on his earth-hunger, that he resolved to
base his book. The following extract from one of his
letters1 will show his intentions:

" c La Terre * will treat of the French peasant's passion for the
soil, his long struggle to acquire possession of it, his crushing
labour, his brief joys and his great wretchedness. He will be
studied too in connection with religion and politics, his present
condition being explained by his past history; even his future
will be indicated, that is the part he may possibly play in a
Socialist revolution. All that, of course, will lie beneath the
drama unfolded in the book, the drama of a father dividing his
i Zola to Vizetelly & Co., Paris, March 24, 1887.

232 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER

land among his children before his death, whence slow and abom-
inable martyrdom will ensue, a perfect tragedy setting some sixty
characters, an entire village of La Beauce7 in motion; without
counting a secondary plot, the passionnel side of the story, a
quarrel between two sisters, separated by the advent of a man,
still and ever in connection with a question of land. To sum up,
I wish to do for the peasant what I did in * L'Assommoir ' for the
Paris workman, that is, recount his history, manners, passions,
and sufferings, such as environment and circumstances have fatally
made them."

In the spring of 1886 Zola started on a tour of investiga-
tion. He already had some personal knowledge of the
region where he proposed to lay the scene of his story,
having gone there in his mother's time, but that was long
before he thought of writing f* La Terre." Among the places
he now visited was CMteaudun, where one finds him early
in May, whence he writes a friend an interesting letter
which Mr. Sherard prints, and a portion of which one may
venture to quote here ;

" I have been here [Ch&teaudun] since yesterday, and have found
the spot I need. It is a little valley, four leagues hence, in the
canton of Cloyes, between Le Perche and La Beauce, and on the
confines of the latter. I shall introduce a little brook into it,
which will flow into the Loir — such a brook, by the way, exists.
I shall there have all I require — large farms and small, a central
spot, thoroughly French, a typical and very characteristic horizon,
gay people speaking patois — in short what I always hoped for. . .
I shall return to Cloyes to-morrow and shall go thence to visit my
valley and my bit of Beauce frontier in detail. For the day after
to-morrow I have an appointment with a farmer living three leagues
from here, in La Beauce, and shall visit his farm in detail. ... I
remained to-day at CMteaudun to attend a big cattle-market." l
i Sherard, Lc., p. 227,

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVFXIST AND REFORMER 233

IE June Zola returned to M&lan, and throughout that
year and indeed until August, 1887, one finds him busy with
this hook from which he turned only for a short time in
February and April to attend to the production, first of a
dramatic version of " Le Ventre de Paris/* l which had at
least a succls de curwsiUt and secondly of a play called
" Renfe " — based on " La Curfe " — which proved a re-
sounding failure and was attended by an acrimonious con-
troversy in the press. In the opinion of the critics,
apparently, Racine's "Phaedra" sufficed for all time, and
the idea of a modern one in the person of " Rende " was
monstrous : thus Zola sinned both against the great classic
writer and against modern society.2

While he was dividing his attention between those plays
and his novel " La Terre," France was becoming more and
more absorbed in political questions. General Boulanger,
who had been Minister of War in the Freycinet adminis-
tration of 1886 had lost that position, but his popularity
remained extreme, fanned as it was by a large party of mal-
contents of various political schools. Many were actuated
solely by patriotic considerations, for there had been trouble
with Germany over an Alsatian frontier incident known
historically as the Schnsebeld Affair. Some people who

1 "Le Yentre de Paris," ive acts, by E. Zola and W. Busnach, first per-
formed at the Theatre de Paris, February 25, 1887. It differed considerably
from Zola's novel with the same title. Sarcey slated it in " Le Temps " and
Zola answered him in "Le Rgaro," March 3, 1887.

2 "ReneV1 five acts, by E. Zola, first performed at the Vaudeville April
16, 1887. On« may add that in the latter part of 1887 two plays based on
tales by Zola were given in Paris : The first was " Jacques Damour," one act,
by Le*on Hennique, Ode"on, September 22, and the second, "Tout pour
1'Honneur," adapted from " Le Capitaine Burle," one act, by Henri Ce*ard,
Theatre Libre, December, 1887; performed also at the Theatre Moliere,
Brussels, in 1888.

234 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

"believed the general to be sincerely Republican only wished
Mm to relieve them of certain men of the hour, such as
President Gr&vy, for rumours were already abroad respecting
the nefarious practices of the latter's son-in-law, M. Wilson.
But others were intent on purposes of their own, the over-
throw of the Republic and the establishment of a monarchy
or a dictatorship, into which enterprise they hoped to
inveigle the popular ex-Minister of War. Briefly, at this
time a great crisis was gradually approaching.

Nevertheless, though the unrest penetrated to the literary
world, the latter did not neglect the subjects which more
particularly concerned it, and there was some commotion
among men of letters when on August 18 that year (1887)
a Le Figaro " published a manifesto directed against Zola's
new work, which had been appearing in the " Gil Bias "
since May, and the concluding pages of which were at
that very moment being written at M&ian. This manifesto
(which, when one recalls the presumptuous preface to " Les
Soirfes de M&Ian," may be regarded as a Roland for an
Oliver) was signed by five young writers, Paul Bonnetain,
J. BL Rosny, Lucien Descaves, Paul Margueritte, and Gustave
Guiches, who, " in the name of their supreme respect for art,
protested against a literature devoid of all nobility/' The
factum was of some length, diffuse, bristling with scientific
jargon, and disfigured by a ridiculous attack on the personal
appearance of Zola, whose leadership these young men
solemnly renounced.

At that time the best known of the five was Paul
Bonnetain, a Provencal of Nimes, and a friend of Alphonse
Daudet, who came from the same city. Bonnetain had then
published four or five books, the first of which, " Chariot

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMEK 235

s'amuse," had so out-Zola'd anything written by Zola him-
self that its author had been prosecuted for it. M. Rosny
on his side had at that date written two books, " Nell Horn,"
a ridiculous story of "English manners,nand"Le Bilateral,"
a study of Anarchism and Collectivism which showed marked
improvement. M. Gustave Guiches was the author of three
volumes, none of which had attracted attention; while
Lucien Descaves had published four novels, and was gradu-
ally emerging from obscurity, though another two years
were to elapse before his venturesome book, " Sous-Off," —
for which he was tried and acquitted — made his name
at all widely known. Finally, M. Paul Margueritte —
destined like M. Eosny to acquire a high position in litera-
ture, in conjunction, be it said, with his younger brother,
Victor — was as yet only known by an estimable book
on his father, the gallant general killed at Sedan, and a
couple of works of fiction, " Tous Quatre " and " Une Con-
fession posthume." The eldest of the band, Bonnetain,
was in his thirtieth year, the others were six or seven and
twenty.

A comical feature of the affair was that of these five in-
dignant writers, who so solemnly disowned <f the Master of
M&lan," only one, Bonnetain, was personally known to him.
They had met just twice. With the others Zola had no
acquaintance at all. This appears clearly from the state-
ments he made to M. Fernand Xau of the " Gil Bias," who,
directly the manifesto appeared and Zola's enemies raised a
cry of jubilation at the so-called " great Naturalist schism,"
hurried to M£dan to interview the author of "La Terre."
A portion of Zola's declarations to M. Xau may well be
given here:

236 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

" I do not know what is thought in Paris of this protest which
has brought me some very kind letters from my confreres, but
it has stupefied me. I do not know those young men* They do
not belong to my entourage, they have never sat at my table, they
are not my friends. If they are disciples of mine — and re-
member I do not seek to make disciples — they are so without
my knowledge. Why then do they repudiate me ? The situation
is original. It is as if a woman with whom a man never had any
intercourse were to write him : c I have had quite enough of you,
let us separate ! ' The man would certainly reply to that : 'It's
all one to me.' Well, the position is very similar.

" If friends of mine, if Maupassant, Huysmans, and C^ard, had
addressed me in such language publicly, I should certainly have
felt somewhat offended. But this declaration can have no such
effect on me. I shall make no answer to it at all. ... It would
be giving importance to a matter which has none. When I am
fighting a theatrical battle I write an open letter to Sarcey because
Saroey certainly exercises great authority. In some literary dis-
cussions I have written in a similar way to Albert Wolff, because
he is an old cTircmgueur to whom people listen. But whatever
may be my feelings towards the five gentlemen who have signed
the document we are speaking of, they must excuse me if I don't
answer, for I have nothing to say to them. , , . One thing I can-
not understand is why these young men should pass themselves off
as soldiers of mine deserting my flag. The only one I know a
very, very little is Bonnetain, whose 'Opium* I have read, and
whose talent I esteem. He once called on me; and when he
appeared before the Tribunal of Correctional Police, after ' Chariot
s'amuse,' he wrote asking me to let him have a letter to be read in
court. I sent him one, but I advised him not to use it, for the
judges, I fancy, hold me in slight esteem. Well, I met Bonnetain
again at Daudet's, at the ' Sapho * dinner, and that is all ! . . ,
The comical part of the affair is that people used to reproach
me with what they called * my tail.' They were willing to tolerate
what I wrote, but they refused to accept the productions of the

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 237

young men who claimed to be my disciples — though. I cried from
the house roofs that I had none. * Cut your tail off! * people re-
peated. Well, it is cut off at last It has taken itself off of its
own accord, and now, perhaps, folk will be satisfied." *

While conversing with M. Xau, Zola mentioned that some
of his friends believed the manifesto to be an echo of the
opinions of certain persons whom he held in high esteem,
both personally and from a literary standpoint ; but he had
reason to know that the persons in question were really
grieved by the factum to which they had given neither in-
spiration nor assent The allusion was in part to Alphonse
Daudet, by reason of his friendship with Bonnetain, but
more particularly to Edmond de Goncourt, as the latter's
" Journal " explains. Goncourt' s house, his grewier, as one
said in those days, had become the meeting-place of a
number of young authors, who looked up to him much as
others had looked up to Flaubert. And Goncourt, on read-
ing the manifesto in " Le Figaro/' had immediately exclaimed,
"Liable, why four of them belong to my grenier/"* It
naturally occurred to him that Zola might think the plot
had been hatched there, under his auspices, and he felt
extremely annoyed. A journalist who called on Mm sug-
gested an article showing that he had no responsibility in
the matter; but Goncourt declined to hide behind others.
If anything had to be said he would say it himself. How-
ever, he went to dine at Champrosay with Daudet, and after
they had decided that the manifesto was very badly written
and outrageously insulting, they communicated privately
with Zola, who was thus able to tell M. Xau that whatever

i " Gil Bias," August 21, 1887.

3 "Journal des Goncourt," Yol. Til, p. 206.

238 &ULE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

might b© mid elsewhere, he knew that " the certain persons
whom he held in high esteem ** had nothing to do with
tit© affair.

On the other hand, some minor literary men adhered to
the protest, and the incident was so sedulously exaggerated
by Zola's enemies that one might have imagined the mani-
festo had come from novelists of high reputation instead of
from beginners, who, with the exception of Bonnetain, had
not yet half-won their spurs. The affair has been related
in some detail here, first because a kind of legend has
gathered round it, a legend repeated in many of the me-
moirs issued after Zola's death, and secondly because it
ultimately had a notable result : the nomination of Zola as
& knight of the Legion of Honour.

Before recounting how that occurred it must be men-
tioned that ** La Terre ** was published in volume form late
in 1887.1 The attacks made upon it ever since the so-called
^Manifesto of the Fivew then acquired yet greater in-
tensity, which a little later was checked somewhat by the
uproar attending the decorations scandal in which President
Gravy's son-in-law was implicated, followed by the Presi-
dent's resignation, the election of Carnot, and the increase
of the Boulangist propaganda. However, at every pause in
that turmoil the denunciation of Zola began afresh.

It was still going on when M. Edmond Lockroy, who had
known the novelist in the old days of "Le Rappel," became

1 " La Terra," Paris, Charpentier, 1887, 18mo, 519 pages. Some copies on
Japan* Dutch, and India paper. One hundredth thousand in 1893 ; one
hundred and thirty-fifth thousand in 1903. Illustrated edition : Marpon and
Mammarion, n. 0% large 8vo, 472 pages ; wood-engravings after Dues,
Bochegrosae, etc.; one hundred and fifty copies on Dutch paper with the en-
gravings on India paper.

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 239

Minister of Public Instruction. Married to Charles Hugo's
widow, guardian of the great poet's grandchildren, artist,
author, Garihaldian volunteer, politician, deputy, and minis-
ter, M. Lockroy was — and is still — a man of very broad
views. He had formed a poor opinion of the " Manifesto of
the Five" at the time of its appearance, and he was dis-
gusted by the ensuing attacks, which emanated for the
most part from the reactionary press. In these circum-
stances he resolved on a somewhat bold course, that of
offering the red ribbon to the much-abused author, as an
official recognition of his literary attainments, and as a kind
of solatium for the insults heaped upon him.

At the same time M. Lockroy realised that as Zola, an-
gered by the behaviour of Bardoux in 1878, had then
declared he would not accept a decoration, it would be
advisable to sound him unofficially in the first instance.
The Dq.inister ended by selecting as his intermediary a lady
who knew the novelist well, and she at once repaired to
M^dan to ascertain his views.1 At her first words Zola
began to protest, reminding her of the public declaration he
had formerly made, and adding that if he now accepted the
red ribbon he would surely cover himself with ridicule.
But the minister's messenger insisted, pointing out, notably,
that prejudiced and ignorant people were on all sides accus-
ing him of deliberate immorality, even obscenity, and that
his official nomination to the Legion of Honour might act

1 The story is told on the authority of Madame Charpentier, wife of the
publisher, hut it is somewhat doubtful whether the lady in question was her-
self, though she and her husband knew M. Lockroy as well as Zola. If not,
the intermediary may have been a lady related to a minister whose energy
made him famous during the siege of Paris. There was such a lady who
knew Zola well. English and American readers will doubtless regard the
whole affair as being "very French."

240 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

as a cheek on his insctlters and rehabilitate him in the eyes
of the vulgar. Afc last Zola began to waver, and after con-
sulting Ms wife, who favoured the proposal, he gave his
assent to it At the same time, mindful of M. Bardoux'
sWUy-shaUying, he insisted that he should have a formal
promise fxom the minister immediately. It was given him ;
and very soon afterwards, the time having come to draw up
the list of those who should be decorated on the occasion of
the National Fete that year, 1888, M. Lockroy brought
Zola's name before the Council of Ministers. Later, the
decree having been signed and gazetted, he personally fixed
the red ribbon to Zola's buttonhole in the drawing-room of
the lady who had acted as intermediary.

She, it would appear, was not a little astonished some
time tf texwards when on receiving a visit from the novelist
h0 told her that he had decided to offer himself as a candi-
date for the French Academy. And he explained the posi-
tion thus ; *I had the choice of two paths, one leading to
the r«50gnition of my readers only, the other leading to
official recognition also. I never troubled about the latter,
but you turned me into that path, and I am not the man to
halt half way on any road. As there is an Academy I shall
offer myself as a candidate directly a suitable opportunity
occurs. And," he added jocularly, "as there is a Senate
also I may even offer myself as a candidate for that as
well Why not ? Ste.~Beuve was a senator, and perhaps I
myself shall be one."

Neither of those aspirations was realised; and, in later
years, even, Zola's decoration of the Legion of Honour was
almost taken from him. It had come to Mm, not as some
have said as the result of " Le B§ve," which was not pub-

Photo by Nadar

Emile Zola, 1888-1890

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 241

lished till some months afterwards, but as the result of " La
Terre." Elsewhere, however, that same book had very dif-
ferent consequences for another man, for it led to proceed-
ings at law which ruined him, cast him into prison, and
hastened his death. How that happened the following
chapter will tell.

THE BEITISH PHAEISEES

1884-1893

Krst English translations of Zola— Attacks on Zola in England — The Vize-
tisllys, glassmakers and printers — Henry Vizetelly and his career — His
publishing business — The six-shilling novel — Ernest Vizetelly's work
for Vizetelly & Co, — His acquaintance with Zola — His opinion of the
Zola translations — He becomes reader and editor to Vizetelly & Co. —
He partially expurgates the English version of " La Terre " — "W. T. Stead
solicits information from Yizetelly — The sales of the Zola translations —
Th« " National Vigilante " — <f The Maiden Tribute " — Publicity v. Se-
cwcy — Zola's aim — Mendacity of some English newspapers — Yizetelly's
catakgw — Samuel Snath, M, P., and " pernicious literature " — A debate
in the HGOS* of Commons — More newspaper lies — Vizetelly committed
for trial— -**The Dacaweron ** prosecuted — The Government takes up
the Viawtely prosecmtiom— Vket©lly*s letter to Sir A. K. Stephenson —
11 H«*tw sav® us from 0ar friends ! ** — VueteUy** difficulties — His trial,
October, 1888 — Purity of the rural districts of England — The case
stopped — Sentence — Yizetelly's undertaking respecting the Zola books

— Zola's view of the case — Expurgation and reissue of the translations

— Yizetelly again summoned — He assigns his property to his creditors —
Mr. George Moore on the " National Yigilants *'-— Mr. Frank Harris's offer

— Ernest Vizetelly and the responsibility of the new trial — Mr. Cock,
Q. C. — His notion of duty to a client — The trial, May SO, 1889 — The
plea of "guilty" — - Vizetell/s collapse —Sir E. Clarke and Ernest Vize-
telly — Sentence on Henry Vizetelly — He is sent to the wrong prison
— The legerdemain of the Prison Commissioners — A question for the
House of Commons — A letter from Mr. Labouchere — A memorial for
Henry Yizetelly's release — Robert Buchanan defends him — His last
years and death.

THE earliest versions of Zola's novels in our language of-
fered for sale in Great Britain were of American origin.
Some American translations are ably done — that is well
known — bnt the particular ones here referred to were for

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 243

the most part ridiculous, full of errors, and so defaced by
excisions and alterations as to give no idea of what the
books might be like in French. There were translations of
much greater merit in Germany, Italy, and Russia ; but until
a Mr. Turner produced in London a version of " Au Bonheur
des Dames," l the English reader, ignorant of Trench, really
had no opportunity of forming any personal opinion of Zola's
writings. He had to rest content with the views expressed
in various newspapers and periodicals by men who had read
Zola in the original. Among those who wrote on him in the
English reviews were Mr. Andrew Lang and Mr. Henry
James ; but most of the articles that appeared were conven-
iently anonymous, and therefore, perhaps, essentially abu-
sive, as, for instance, an unsigned paper in "Blackwood's
Magazine,1* the writer of which, not content with attacking
Zola's books, thought it as well to libel him as a man. At
long intervals there appeared some article in his defence,
some statement of his principles and his aims, the best of
these being another anonymous paper called " The Literary
Creed of £mile Zola,"2 though even this had a foolishly
worded " note " attached to it, showing how little Zola was
understood by the average English editor. Such, then, was
the position : a dozen or more worthless American versions
on the market, and frequent attacks in reviews, magazines,
and newspapers, when, in 1884, the first English series of
Zola translations was begun by a London publisher, Henry
Vizetelly, who, assisted by two of his sons, traded as
" Vizetelly & Co."

1 See cmte, p. 214.

a The writer has a copy of this article, a very able one, cut from the pages
of a review or magazine, which, unfortunately he has been unable to identify.

244 ftCILB ZOLAf NOTELIST AND REFORMER

Before proceeding further the writer desires to enter a
plea jm? dtmo ma. He, like others, has his weak spot, and
the prwent may he the only opportunity he will ever have
of setting forth certain facts concerning his family, which, in
spite of considerable association with English journalism
tad literature, has frequently heen described— chiefly in
connection with Zola and his writings — as Greek, Hunga-
rian, Polish, Italian, or Jewish. That the Vizetellys are of
Italian origin is indisputable, hut one may well inquire how
long it takes to make a family English ? Some are accepted
as such after a few years. Surely, then, four centuries
ought to suffice.

The forerunners of Henry Vizetelly came from Yenice1 to
England in the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth ; and until
the end of the seventeenth century were concerned in the
manufacture of glass. One of them became connected with
son*® works established at Lambeth in or about 1673 by
Gewgt Vflliers, second Duke of Buckingham. The first
sheets of blown glass for mirrors and coach-windows made in
Great Britain came from those works, which Evelyn visited,
as mentioned in his "Diary." But in the early part of the
eighteenth century the Vizetellys became printers, and the
family papers describe them as of "the parish of St. Bride's
in the city of London." The Vizetelly, or Vizzetelli, of
Elkabethan days having been called James (Jacopo), it
became until recent years the family rule that the eldest
son of the eldest son should bear that Christian name.

1 Researches made by the late James T. G. Vizetelly, who was long tlie
senior member of the family (1818-1897), traced it "back to Ravenna, whence
it removed to Venice. Henry Vizetelly, when preparing his autobiography, had
no family documents before Mm and fell into various errors in his account of
Ms forerunners.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE 245

Another name, given to daughters, was the Biblical one of
Hehetabel, a survival, perhaps, of some family Puritanism
in Commonwealth days. But if there were a Puritan,
there was certainly no Jewish strain in the family, the
men of which in the eighteenth century married girls with
good old English names, some of them London born and
others coming from counties as far away as Cheshire.
Thus, although the Vizetellys seem to have never forgotten
their origin and to have cultivated friendship with sundry
notable Italians who settled in England, it is certain that,
as generation followed generation, English blood predomi-
nated in their veins.

The status of the eighteenth-century Vizetellys as printers
is difficult to determine. They were apparently in fair
circumstances, but the writer knows of no eighteenth-cen-
tury book bearing their imprint. He believes they were
associated in business with others whose names alone
appeared. The first found actually trading in his own
name was James Henry Vketelly,1 born in 1790, and son
of James Visetelly, "printer, of St. Bride's parish and of

1 Even his business, that of Vizetelly, Branstcra & Co., printers and
publishers, was at one time known merely by the name of the "Co./* that
is as Whitehead's, though J, H. Vizetelly was managing partner. He had
served his apprenticeship with the Coxes, and did not take np his freedom
(his father and grandfather had been freemen of the city before him) till
September, 1827. He was a man of considerable gifts ; he wrote for several
periodicals, produced a variety of verse (privately printed by himself) initiated
the famous "Boy's Own Book," as well as " Cruikshank's Comic Almanack"
of which he became the "Rigdnm Funnidos," and was one of the best ama-
teur actors of his time. He was very intimate with Edmund Kean, whom
he greatly resembled in appearance, and it is said that more than once when
Kean was hopelessly drunk he took his place on the boards. Such at least
was the story often told to the writer by his grandmother (James Henry's
widow) and expressly confirmed to him by an old family friend, Mr* Lem-
priere, son of the Leinpriere of the " Classical Dictionary."

246 iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields." James Henry's eldest
son, James Thomas George, was apprenticed to him as a
printer; and his second son, Henry Richard, after acquiring
a knowledge of the same trade, was placed first with
Bonner and afterwards with Orrin Smith, two noted wood-
engravers. He proved one of the latter's best pupils, and
ultimately joined his brother James in the printing and
engraving firm known as Vizetelly Brothers.

WMle thus engaged, Henry Vizetelly1 was approached
by Mr. Herbert Ingram, a former news-agent of Notting-
ham, on the subject of founding an illustrated newspaper.
The outcome (1842) was "The Illustrated London News,"
the first journal of its kind in any country. Vizetelly
afterwards quarrelled with Ingram, and, in 1843, in con-
junction with Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode, started an opposi-
tion ptper, ^The Pictorial Times/' to which some notable
men, including Douglas Jerrold and Thackeray, contributed.
As, however, the printing and engraving business which
he carried on with his brother was becoming a large one,
Yizetelly eventually severed his connection with journalism
for some years, and either with his brother, or later on his
own account, produced a large number of illustrated books,
which from typographical and other technical standpoints
were often among the best of their time. He was also
(this may interest American readers) the first to introduce
Poe's " Tales » and— through C. H. Clarke — Mrs. Stowe's
"Uncle Tom's Cabin,3* to the English public; and, having

1 He lias related the greater part of his career in his "Glances Back
through Seventy Years," and an account of it, of some length, will be found
in the "Dictionary of National Biography.1' Bat for the purpose 'which the
present writer has in view he considers it as well to recapitulate its chief
features.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 247

virtually discovered Birket Foster, he also did much to
popularise Longfellow in England. Perhaps Ms best work
as a wood-engraver was that done for the edition of a Evan-
geKne," illustrated with Foster's designs.

Vizetelly also took a prominent part in the agitation for
the repeal of the taxes on knowledge, such as the news-
paper stamp and the paper duty, being honorary secretary
to the society for the removal of the latter impost ; and in
1855, conjointly with David Bogue, the publisher of most
of the books he printed, he started " The Illustrated Times,1*
on the staff of which, as had been the case with "The
Pictorial Times," there were again many notable writers
and artists.1 This newspaper ran a very successful course
for some years, but about 1860 Vizetelly — after losing a
large sum over another venture, "The Welcome Guest" —
sold his share in the proprietorship to Ingram of "The
Illustrated London News." Ultimately, in 1865, he en-
tered into an agreement to represent the last-named
journal on the continent of Europe, with headquarters in
Paris, to which city he removed with his family. He saw
virtually all there was to be seen there during the last
years of the Empire, the subsequent siege by the Germans,
and, later, the Commune. He afterwards acted for "The
Illustrated London News" as a "special" in different
parts of Europe, and became British wine juror at various
international exhibitions, for he had made a particular
study of wines in the regions where they were produced,

1 Among others, James Hannay, Edmund Yates, Eobert Brough, G-. A.
Sala, Sutherland Edwards, J. C, Parkinson, Augustus Mayhew, Frederick
and James Greenwood, Tom Robertson, John Hollingshead, "Phiz," Birket
Foster, Henry Meadows, Gustave Dore*, Charles Keene, Edmond Morin,
Gustave Janet, the Claxton sisters, Matt. Morgan, etc.

248 tHJUt ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

mad wrote on them at length both in "The Pall Mall
Gazette ** aad in a series of popular volumes. Other sub-
jects also attracted his pen; the best of his numerous
literary efforts being probably a work on the famous Dia-
mond Necklace scandal, and another on Berlin as it was
when Bismarck had constituted the new German Empire.

Such, then, was the man who in 1880 joined the ranks
of the London publishers. He was at that time sixty years
old but still full of energy, and he gave great personal
attention to his business, though, as already mentioned, he
had the assistance of two sons. He had been twice mar-
ried, and of a numerous family four sons and a daughter
were then living. The sons whom he had with Mm were
the younger ones, Arthur and Frank Vketelly ; * their elder
brothers, then abroad, being Edward2 and Ernest, the
present writer, who for convenience proposes to refer to
bixoadf by his Christian name throughout this particular

* Arthur and Frank Horace Yizetelly, both born at Kensington, the former
on October Si, 1855, the latter on April 2, 1864. Both educated at East-
bourne and ia France, The former has written and edited various English
educational works and periodicals. The latter, resident in New York since
1801, has since become supervisor of the editorial work, and secretary of the
editorial board of the " Jewish Encyclopedia," and associate editor of the
*' Standard Dictionary," besides helping to produce several other well-known
works of reference. In 1901, the Governor of Bermuda having given him
special access to the Boer prisoners, he wrote several papers on their condition.
He has also written on Zola in American periodicals.

* Edward Henry Vizetelly, born at Chiswick, January 1, 1847, educated
at Eastbourne and St. Qmer, war and special correspondent, editor of " The
Times of Egypt," Cairo, and afterwards on "Le Journal," Paris. He came
to London about 1893, worked there as an author and journalist, and trans-
lated some of Zola's novels. He died in 1903. He had been orderly officer
to General Garibaldi in 1870, and later an officer of Bashi-bazouks under
Mouktar Pasha. "While in the East he had assumed the pseudonym of
"Bertie Clere," by which he was generally known, there.

6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 249

One of the first ventures of the new business, a series of
sketches of English society, entitled " The Social Zoo," and
published in parts, was badly launched and dropped before
completion ; but some sections of it, by E. (X Grenville-
Murray, attracted great attention and sold widely on being
reissued in volume form. Sala's "Paris Herself Again**
and other books were also very successful; but when
Vizetelly — who by reason of his long residence in Paris
took great interest in French literature — produced a series
of cheap translations of works of high repute in France —
novels and tales by Daudet, Theuriet, About, Malot, Cher-
buliez, George Sand, Mdrimde, and others — there was little
or no demand for them, though a large amount of money
was spent in advertisements. Indeed it soon appeared that
if French fiction was to be offered to English readers at all
it must at least be sensational; and Vizetelly therefore
started a cheap series of Gaboriau's detective stories, which
found a large and immediate market. The business gradu-
ally expanded, and before long, in addition to miscellaneous
works by Sala, Grenville-Murray, and others, the firm took
up English fiction in a new form.

Mr. George Moore, the novelist, having found the circu-
lating libraries opposed to some of his books, protested
vigorously against the three-volume system which placed
English fiction at the libraries' mercy. He held that all
novels ought to be sold direct to the public, and many
other writers agreed with him. Mr. Moore became- one
of Vizetelly & Co/s authors, and the firm thereupon put
the theory of direct sale to the public into practice. They
abandoned the three-volume system altogether, issuing their
new novels in one volume only ; and it was Henry Vizetelly

250 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

who feed the price at six shillings, to be lowered, after the
earlier editions, to three shillings and sixpence — those
being the figures which still prevail today. When therefore
in later years the three-volume novel was finally slain it was
somewhat impudent on the part of certain publishers to
issue advertisements claiming all the merit of the change ;
for long before they or others joined the movement, Viz-
etelly & Co., as their catalogues show, were issuing a whole
series of novels at the popular price, and quoting, in cordial
approval of their initiative, an extract from an article in
* The Saturday Review/ Doubtless the one-volume system
has not done all that was predicted for it, but it has cer-
tainly been an improvement on the old one, and it may be
fairly claimed that Mr. George Moore and Henry Yizetelly
were ita pioneers*

After the establishment of Ms publishing business,
YiieteUy had communicated with Ms son Ernest,1 who
WES then living in Paris and had friends and acquaintances
among writers, publishers, and booksellers there. Several
suggestions which he made in the course of the next few
years were adopted by the firm. However the idea of
publishing English translations of Zola's works did not
originate with him. As a journalist he had to keep him-
self informed respecting everything that occurred in Paris ;

1 Ernest Alfred Yizetelly, born at Kensington, November 29, 1853.
Educated at Eastbourne and at the Lyce*e Imperial Bonaparte, Paris. Became
a war correspondent (youngest on record) in 1870. Was in Paris during part
of the siege ; passed through the German lines to Versailles ; subsequently
joined Chanz/s army and described his overthrow at Le Mans and retreat on,
Laval ("Pall Mall Gazette"). Was in Paris throughout the Commune, and
remained on the Continent for many years, chiefly as an English newspaper
correspondent, but from time to time co-operated with his father in the
latter's studies on wines in France and other countries.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 251

and lie was fairly familiar with what had been done,
written, and said there over a long term of years, particu-
larly as even in his school-days he had begun to assist
his father as a newspaper correspondent. Thus he was
already acquainted with the salient features of Zola's
career, the novelist's long and arduous battle for mastery*
He had not read all the Eougon-Macquart volumes then
published, but he had followed the exponent of Naturalism
in his various newspaper campaigns, and he had seen most
of the plays based on his books. Again, he was the only
member of his family who, at that time, had ever met the
novelist. Not long after the Franco-German "War Zola
had been pointed out to him by an artist as " the man who
had championed Manet"; and since then Vizetelly had
seen and elbowed him on various occasions in places of
public resort. But only once had there been any real
conversation between them, in the presence of others, at
the Theatre des Folies-Bergfere, with which Vizetelly had
been for a time connected.1

It may be added that Vizetelly's life in France had in-
clined him to the outspokenness of the French, and that
experience had shown him there was much rottenness in
Parisian society. Thus he had no personal prejudice against
Zola's writings, which contained, he knew, a vast amount of
truth. But he also knew, likewise by experience, that
whenever any horrible scandal arose in Paris, the English
newspapers would only print a small portion of the truth,

i "The Lorer's Progress," by JE. A. Yizetelly, London, Chatto; New-
York, Brentano, 1901, Book II, Chap. V. In that novel the Folies
Bergere is called the "Paradis Paiisien," Zola "Rota," and his book
"L'Asaommoir," "La Matraque."

252 iHILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

aad he, as a correspondent^ was thus often debarred from
making a plain statement of facts of general interest, such as
sometimes affected the moral status of men of very high
position. Moreover, although Vizetelly had left England in
his boyhood, and in subsequent years had only now and
again spent a few days or weeks there (apart from one
sojourn of about twelve months* duration), his own work,
and the frequent perusal of English books and publications
had kept Mm to a certain point in touch with his kinsfolk.
And, so far as he could judge, English literature, like Eng-
lish journalism, was under the thumb of Mrs. Grundy. He
had seen no sign indicating that Naturalism would even
secure a hearing in England. When, therefore, in 1884, he
suddenly heard that Vketelly & Co. were about to produce
** L'Assommoir w and ** Nana " in an English dress, it seemed
to him that the firm was taking an audacious course, and
he did not hesitate to write and say so. He was answered,
that, being resident abroad, he did not fully understand the
position j and, as some difficulty had arisen with the trans-
lation of ** L'Assommoir," he was asked to translate a small
portion of it, some chapter towards the end of the book,
which he did. That, for the time, was the extent of his
share in the Zola translations.

The idea of publishing those translations originated, then,
with Henry Vizetelly, unless, indeed, it was suggested to
him by somebody else. In 1885 his son Ernest, on going
to London, found the firm doing a large and increasing
business. In addition to French and English writers, several
Eussian authors, Tolstoi, Dostoieffsky, and Lermontoff, —
who were followed a little later by Gogol, — had been added
to the firm's catalogue. A series of reprints of the old

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOEMEE 253

dramatists, the well-known "Mermaid Series," was being
projected ; l and the Zola translations, so far as they then
went, were in wide demand. This surprised Ernest Vizetelly,
whose anticipations had been so different But he yielded
to evidence, and even began to think that there was at last
some prospect of English people dropping the hypocrisy
which had clung to them so long and looking unpleasant
facts in the face.

He returned to Paris, where he remained till 1887, when
various reasons induced him to take up his residence in
London. He had married some years previously, and
though his wife was French he particularly desired that his
children should retain his nationality. Moreover, he now
had the offer of a great deal of work from his father, who
was projecting various reprints of French eighteenth-century
books, as well as expensive and sumptuous editions of " The
Heptameron," " The Decameron," and the works of Kabelais.
Some thousands of pounds were spent on those under-
takings, but only the first-named eventually saw the light.2
Arriving in London, Ernest Vizetelly became one of the
readers and editors of his father's firm ; but for one reason
or another he still had little to do with the Zola translations.
His father contemplating a new edition of the Gramont
Memoirs, he revised the translation alleged to have been
edited by Sir Walter Scott, and corrected some scores of

1 Vizetelly & Co. published the first fifteen roluraes of this series, which
on the firm going into liquidation was acquired by Mr. Fisher Unwin.

2 The edition in five Tolumes with the Freudenberg and Duncker plates,
known as that of the " Society of English Bibliophiliats/1 but really issued
by Mr. J. C. Nimmo after Vizetelly & Co. had gone into liquidation. Professor
Saintsbury wrote for this edition an essay on the French work; but the actual
translation of the tales was made by Mr. J. S. Chartres, and the present
writer supplied the annotation, the memoir of Queen Margaret, etc.

254 ifcMILB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEE

errors which he found in it For the rest, his time was
largely spent in researches respecting the proposed version
of * The Heptameron/* of which he was editor.

Meanwhile Vketelly & Co. were still issuing translations
of modem French fiction, and Mr. George Moore, having
occasion to go to Paris, spoke on the firm's hehalf to Zola
respecting *' La Terre," which book the novelist was then
preparing. An arrangement was made for the sale of the
British rights to Vizetelly & Co., who then knew virtually
nothing of the work, apart from the fact that it would deal
with the French peasantry. Some time afterwards, however,
Zola supplied a brief outline of his book in a letter which
has been already quoted.1 Then various delays ensued,
several months elapsing before proofs of the earlier chapters
were forwawled to Vizetelly & Ca Those proofs were
handed to a translator with whom some difficulty arose, in
such wise that they were transferred to another, and Ernest
Vizetelly was requested to read and check the English
proofs, a task which he occasionally undertook in connec-
tion with various translations. He was immediately struck
by the boldness of Zola's story, which seemed to surpass in
outspokenness any of the novelist's previous works. And at
the very outset he deemed certain excisions and alterations
advisable.

For instance, he found one of the characters, Hyacinthe
Fouan, called by the nickname of "Jesus Christ," and
afflicted with a nasty infirmity. The nickname did not
particularly surprise him, for during the many years he had
spent in Paris, he had known more than one young artist
cultivating, notably as regards hair and beard, a resemblance

i Sea ante, £. 231.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 255

to the traditional portraits of the Christ, and going by that
nickname both in the studios and the caKs frequented by
artists. It seemed to him quite possible that Zola had
found it among the peasantry whom he described. But,
however that might be, Vizetelly felt that the nickname
would give offence to English readers, and so he did not
hesitate to expunge it from the proofs submitted to him.
He felt also, that although Hyacinthe's infirmity might be
true tt ife, it would also give offence to people who no
longer -ead Sterne, and who knew little or nothing of
Rabelais. Accordingly expurgation again ensued.

But as successive instalments of the proofs reached Ernest
Vizetelly, he found in them a good deal of matter, which in
his opinion needed " toning " for the English reader. And
he was confronted by a difficulty which pursued him sub-
sequently when he himself translated some of Zola's works ;
that is to say, the French proofs arrived in sections, the
translation was supplied in the same manner, and it was
therefore difficult to determine what incidents and facts
might be really essential, and how far expurgation might
be carried without rendering the book unintelligible. Vize-
telly spoke on the matter to one of his brothers, and ulti-
mately he put the work on one side, deciding to wait for its
completion. Considerable delay ensued in the publication
of the translation. Meantime, towards the close of 1887,
the original work appeared in Paris, and was virulently
attacked by Zola's enemies ; while a rumour, subsequently
contradicted, spread to the effect that translations had been
stopped in various countries. It therefore seemed advisable
to proceed cautiously. Finally the matter was laid before
Henry Vizetelly, the proofs of the English version were

256 ImiLE ZGLA* NOVELIST AND KJEFOKMEE

examined from beginning to end, and in conjunction with
his son Emeafc, he struck out or modified a very large
number of passages, with the result that much of the
work had to be reimposed* It may be said, then, that the
translation as published was undoubtedly an expurgated

one.

About this time, that is in March, 1888, Mr. W. T. Stead,
then editor of « The Pall Mall Gazette," who had made him-
self notorious some time previously by a series of articles on
w The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," applied to Vize-
telly & Co. for some information respecting the sales of
the various translations from the French, which the firm
was publishing, and which certainly circulated widely and
attracted great attention. When the matter was laid before
Henry "Vizetelly, Ms »on Arthur, who took a large part in
th© management of the business, suggested that the request
should not be entertained, for, said he, it was a very unusual
one, and publishers were not in the habit of supplying the
public with all sorts of particulars about their affairs.
That, at the time in question, was quite true ; but Henry
Vketelly, who saw no objection to the request, supplied Mr.
Stead with an article in which he gave numerous particulars
concerning the sales of his publications. The article, as the
sequel showed, was somewhat injudiciously worded in
various respects. For instance, it conveyed an impression
that — unlike the crude and mangled American versions of
Zola which were then in the market — the Vizetelly trans-
lations of that author were absolutely unmutilated. As a
matter of fact, none of them was an exact Replica of the
original, all had been expurgated more or less, though care
had invariably been taken to preserve the continuity of the

ZOLA, HOVELIST AND REFOKMER

narrative. Further, though Vizetelly had very good grounds
for asserting that he reckoned it a bad week when the sale
of the Zola translations fell helow a thousand volumes, this
statement, which seemed at first sight to indicate a very
large circulation,1 was again indiscreet, and was eagerly
seized hold of and magnified hy those who were already
lying in wait to destroy him.

Of the inner workings of that conspiracy the writer might
perhaps say a good deal ; but for the purposes of this narra-
tive, the facts which appeared on the surface are sufficient.
A campaign was started, chiefly against Vketelly & Co., and
ostensibly for the purpose of protecting boys and girls,
against what was called " pernicious literature." A society
styling itself the " National Vigilance Association " eventu-
ally took the matter in hand. Its secretary, the person
usually representing it in public, was a man named Coote ;
the agent for its publications was a Protestant fanatic
named Kensit;2 among those who gave it their counte-
nance was W. T. Stead, then, as already mentioned, editor of
"The Pall Mall Gazette." The publications of Kensit on
" The High Church Confessional," and those of Stead on "The
Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," would have seemed
to indicate that both Kensit aftd Stead favoured the doc-
trine of outspokenness or publicity to which Zola gave effect
in his novels, the doctrine which he summed up in the

1 About this time Yizetelly & Co. were selling no fewer than eighteen of
Zola's books. And a sale of one thousand copies a week, representing one
of fifty-two thousand a year, would not really be large in a publisher's estima-
tion. It would represent an average of less than three thousand copies a year
for each work, but of course the newer volumes sold more largely than the
older ones.

* "Truth," September 22, 1898,

258 ZOLA, NOYEIIST AND EEFOEMEE

words, **Let tU be set forth so that all may be healed/*
But although in the estimation of Eensit and Stead it was
quite right that they should speak out, the idea of allowing
Zola the same privilege was nonsense. He was Belial,
whereas of them it might be said : " Mark the perfect men,
and behold the upright** Thus they might circulate de-
scriptions of vice, — even allow them, as in the case of " The
Maiden Tribute," to be hawked about the streets in penny
numbers l ; but Zola must not picture vice in his books.

Among the members of the so-called " National Vigilance
Association" were various parsons and priests who naturally
abominated such an infidel as Zola, and some of whom sub-
sequently traduced him freely. These might accept the
outspokenness of a Stead, but, generally speaking, they
represented the doctrine of reticence and secrecy as opposed
to that of publicity. Theirs was the policy, pursued through
the ages, of wrapping everything up, cloaking everything
over, and they were lost in anger, horror, and amazement
when they found a different course being pursued. They
ignored Zola's position altogether, though for years he had
been calling to them and those who resembled them : " You
claim to reform the world, you preach and you prate ; but
although your endeavours may be honest you do little or no
good. Evil exists on all sides, society is rotten at the core ;
but you merely cover up abominations, you even feign at
times to ignore their existence, though they lie little below

1 "For more than a week, until ' The Daily Telegraph ' took the matter in
hand, the sale of * The Maiden Tribute ' converted London into a pandemo-
nium. None who lived in the vicinity of the Strand at that time will forget
the shouting of the vendors of the obscenity — often children only twelve
years of age." — George Moore, on the "New Censorship of Literature," in
"The New York Herald," London edition, July 28, 1889.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 259

the surface and poison all around them. The system of
reticence and concealment which you pursue is a profound
mistake. It is one of the many consequences of that
system that thousands of girls are cast every year into the
aims of seducers, that thousands of young men kneel at the
feet of harlots. Abortion is practised among the married as
among the unmarried. Drunkenness is in your midst
Your prisons are full. Your gibbets and guillotines are
always in use. Cheating and swindling are commonplaces
of your every-day life. Well, I am resolved to tear the veil
asunder, to set forth everything, to conceal nothing. I shall
shock the world undoubtedly, but it is only by bringing
things to light, by disgusting people with themselves and
their surroundings, that there will be a possibility of
remedying the many evils which prey on the community
at large* Eighteen hundred years have elapsed since the
carpenter of Nazareth walked the earth. You and your
forerunners have had those eighteen hundred years at your
disposal. What have you done in them? How much, or
rather how little real good have you effected with all your
organisations, your great authority, your exceeding wealth,
your devotion, your piety, your talent, which at times has
blossomed into genius? You have extirpated nothing
whatever ; your system has tended chiefly to the dissemi-
nation of hypocrisy and cant ; you have failed egregiously ;
and to explain your failure you preach the ridiculous doc-
trine of the Fall, invented expressly to account for the
impotency of priestcraft. I have nothing to say — as yet
— on the subject of your belief in a future state, of your
system of rewards or penalties after life, for good or evil
conduct in the world, though it is one, half threat and half

200 &CILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

bribe, fear which there should be no occasion. But I take
human society as it is, and by exposing the errors of its
ways I hope to set afoot, to encourage among practical
reformers, a movement of social regeneration, which will
perhaps achieve, in a few centuries, a happier result than
you, even though appealing to the supernatural, have
achieved in so many. And in any case I intend to try,
whatever abuse you may ihower on me, whatever mud you
may fling at me, mud which will some day, perhaps, recoil
upon yourselves."

But how could men, trained to teach one and another
superstition, wrapt in all the prejudices of their heredity
and their caste, accept such arguments as those even if they
had heard of them 1 The mere idea that man might regener-
ate himself without the aid of the supernatural was impious
to their minds ; the idea of stating the truth plainly, of rous-
ing people by shocking them, was horrible to their delicacy
of feeling, for they belonged to a white-livered generation,
whence all robustness had departed. Perhaps if this
Zola had been one of themselves they might have tolerated
him, but he did not bow to the supernatural, his creed was
different, and he was therefore a rival, an enemy, particu-
larly as he contemplated a world whence they would be
banished, as it would need none of their ministrations.

Thus the campaign began and soon found an echo in the
newspapers. At that time probably there were not twenty
journalists in all England who had read Zola's essays and
critical papers in which he defined his position and the
purport of his novels. In the latter, as is well known, he
abstained from preaching. There is nothing of the nature
of a sermon in the whole series of " Les Rougon-Macquart "

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REF01MER 261

until one reaches "Le Docteur Pascal"; and one must
admit that, although Zola had freely expounded his views
elsewhere, the omission of those views from his novels
was detrimental to him and them among those people who
could not rightly understand any exposure of vice unless
it were accompanied hy preaching. Had he preached, the
clergy, so many of whom believe preaching to be the chief
function of their ministry, might well have been on his
side, and even " Blackwood's Magazine " might then have
hesitated to describe him as a man without a conscience.
But he contented himself with picturing vice as vile, and
the viler he made it appear, the more was he abused,
the more was he accused of wallowing in it, of giving
full rein to filthy libidinous propensities for the express
purpose of corrupting all who read him ! That charge was
repeated widely by the English press, as is shown by the
hundreds of cuttings from London and provincial news-
papers in the writer's possession. And Vizetelly & Co.
were accused of having deliberately chosen "the very
worst" of Zola's books for translation.

As a matter of fact, in 1888 they were selling all the
novels that Zola had then written, with the exception of
"Les Mystferes de Marseille," "La Confession de Claude,**
and "Le R§ve," which kst only appeared in Paris in the
latter part of that year. The publication of those books
had been going on for four years, unchallenged. Each
new volume as it appeared was priced at six: shillings,
and subsequently lowered to three shillings and sixpence.
A few volumes, in picture boards, were sold at two shillings
and sixpence. But the critics rushed upon "The Soil,"
the English version of "La Terre," and one man, who

262 tlCiLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

can never have compared it with the original, had the
Impudence to assert that it was " an almost word for word
translation of Zok's bestial book/* Readers who had never
seen Vinetelly & Ca's catalogue were also allowed to infer
that the firm traded exclusively in "pornographic litera-
ture/* Now, in that catalogue, two hundred and forty
works were enumerated, and the Zola volumes were eighteen
in number. But it may be said that other books were
denounced also, the translations of Flaubert's "Madame
Bovary" and * Salammbo * ; Goncourt's "Germinie Lacer-
teui: w and *< Renfe Mauperin " ; Gautier's « Mile, de Maupin " ;
Murger's " Vie de Bohtoe "; Maupassant's " Bel-Ami" and
"TJne Vie"; Daudet's "Sapho"; Paul Bourget's "Grime
d'Amour" and Ms "Cruelle Eiigme," which last the firm
had issued in consequence of a laudatory notice in the staid
old ** Athenieum," surely the last journal in the world
to recommend anything suggestive of pornography. But
counting even all the works belonging more or less to
the French realistic schools which Vketelly & Co. issued,
one reached only a total of about thirty, leaving some two
hundred and ten books of other classes. Thirteen of those
were certainly volumes of " The Mermaid Series of the old
Dramatists" which some anonymous scribes likewise regarded
as €t pornographic " in that hour when cant and hypocrisy
poured venom on virtually every form of literature that had
not received the imprimatur of Pecksniff & Company.

The public having been prepared for developments, the
question of " pernicious literature " was brought before the
House of Commons by one of its members, Mr. Samuel
Smith, who sat for Flintshire. He had married the daughter
of a clergyman, and had a reputation for extreme piety. He

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 263

was described at the time as " an enthusiast without enthu-
siasm, with a tall, expansive frame, a huge beard, a placid-
life-like expression, and a mild feminine voice,1' 1 which, said
another journal, was "peculiarly suited to the expression of
lamentation."2 There was some fear, it seems, that there
might be a poor attendance at the debate on the motion he
meant to submit, indeed a " count out " was feared, tut
arrangements were made to keep a house for the occasion,
when the aspect of the benches was apparently such as the
following diagram indicates :

# * * *

# *

Mr. Smith

* * * #

OPPOSITION BENCHES*

MINISTEBIAL BENCHES.
**** * ** * *

# * * *

[From the "Pall Mail Gazette," May 10, 1888.]

Thus, of an assembly numbering between six and seven
hundred members, just forty were found sufficiently inter-

i « Notts Daily Express/' May 10, 1888.
« "Pall Mall Gazette," May 9, 1888.

264 CUDDLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

ested in the morals of their constituents to discuss the motion
submitted by Mr. Smith, which was: "That this House
deplores the rapid spread of demoralising literature in this
country, and is of opinion that the law against obscene pub-
lications and indecent pictures and prints should be vigor-
ously enforced and, if necessary, strengthened." In the
speech with which the member for Flintshire opened the
debate he did not hesitate to describe Henry Vizetelly as
**the chief culprit in the spread of pernicious literature ";
and, according to a " Pall Mall Gazette n report, which he
never contradicted, he said of the works of Zola that * nothing
more diabolical had ever been written by the pen of man ;
they were only fit for swine, and those who read them must
turn, their minds into cesspools,**1 In this fashion does
the Puritan prate when he goes on the warpath. For the
lest, Mr, Smith talked de omni re sdbili, * flinging Ms ac-
cusations broadcast All kinds of literature, including daily
newspapers, came under his ban. He wanted everything —
books, magazines, and newspapers, — to be subject to some
sort of restraint" He spoke in the "spirit which as-
sumes that what is evilly suggestive to itself must be
evilly suggestive to others." But as was added by the
journal from which these remarks are quoted:2 "What
sort of literature should we have if it were all brought
down to such a level as would satisfy the ascetic tastes
of the Smiths ? Where would the Bible be ? What would
become of Shakespeare?"

1 That passage is not given in a reprint of the speech issued by the " Na-
tional VigOants," but it is inconceivable that a reporter should have invented
it. Besides, virtually the same words as those given above appeared in an
account of the speech in "The Birmingham Daily Mail/' May 9, 1888.

2 tlTheScotsman,nMaylO, 1888.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 265

After Mr. Smith's motion had been seconded by Mr. T. W.
Russell, and endorsed by Sir Robert Fowler and Mr. De
Lisle, another member, Mr. (afterwards Sir F, S.) Powell,
leaving French novels on one side, called attention to certain
circulars "headed with Scriptural texts and looking like
religious tracts" which were circulated in English homes,
apropos of the spread of contagious disease in India,
and which, in his opinion, were calculated to do much,
harm.

Then came the Government spokesman, Mr. Henry Mat-
thews, one of the most unpopular Home Secretaries that
Great Britain has known since the time of the Walpole
under whose effete administration the public tore down the
railings of Hyde Park. Mr. Matthews, a lawyei and a
Roman Catholic, was subsequently given a peerage ; but in
1888 he sat in the House of Commons for the city of Bir-
mingham. He agreed very largely with what Mr. Smith had
said, and he asserted that "in comparing French modern
literature with classical literature it had to be borne in mind
that, while the latter was written with no evil purpose (!), the
former was written with the object of directing attention to
the foulest passions of which human nature was capable, and
to depict them in the most attractive forms * — an allega-
tion which, applied to Zola's works, can only be described as
astounding. But the Home Secretary also denounced the
" penny dreadfuls," the quack advertisements, and the full
reports of divorce cases which appeared in the daily press.
And on the question of instituting prosecutions he said :

« The reason why the law was not more frequently put in force
was the difficulty that was experienced in getting juries to draw a
hard and fast line, and to convict in all cases that crossed that

266 IMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEB

line. He had given careful attention to this question, and he
should deprecate handing over to the Public Prosecutor, or any-
body dae> th© task of deciding what was the straight and narrow
Mn© which divided what was punishable, criminal, and obscene
within the meaning of the law, and what was merely indelicate
and coaim The public judgment was a safer guide than that of
way official, and if the general moral sense of the community did
not compel individuals to prosecute, BO good would be done by
trying to create an artificial moral sense by the action of the
Public Prosecutor. . . . Serious evils arose from the failure of
attempts to obtain convictions. So far, however, as he could in-
fluence the Public Prosecutor, who was, to some extent, indepen-
dent of any Public Office and acted on his own discretion, he would
certainly urge prosecutions in any cases in which it did not appear
that more harm than good would result. ... He was sure, how-
ever, that the hon, Member and all those who had honest con-
victions would not shrink from the alight personal inconvenience
of putting the law in motion in any case of real public mischief."

The debate was continued by three or four members, one
of whom, Mr. H. J. Wilson (Holmfirth) apologetically and
naively declared with respect to the pious circulars on the
working of the Contagious Diseases Act, of which Mr.
Powell had complained, that their distribution was the only
method of making the truth known, and that the only way
to stop them would be to put an end to the horrible system
that rendered their dissemination necessary. To this Zola,
if he had been present, might have retorted that the circula-
tion of the plain statements of fact contained in his books
was likewise, in his estimation, the only way to make known
the degradation of society at large, in order that remedies
might be applied.

Mr. Smith's motion was carried unanimously, however,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 267

by the forty gentlemen present, matters being left In this
position: The Government hesitated to institute pros-
ecutions, and thought that private individuals should
do so*

Meanwhile the campaign went on. Mr. Smith wrote a
letter to the newspapers ; another came from Lord Mount-
Temple ; and the press, with few exceptions, endorsed every-
thing that was said by the Commoner and the nobleman.
The vigilant " Guardian " of the Church of England availed
itself of the occasion to thunder against Sir Richard Burton
and his "Arabian Nights"; "The Tablet * of the Roman
Catholics jesuitically signified its approval of the agitation,
because Zola's whole tendency was " suspected " (!) to be
immoral ; the conscientious Nonconformist journals, as was
to be expected, said ditto to everything that Smith said.
Some righteous contributor to " The Globe " wrote of Zola's
books that they were characterised by " dangerous lubricity,"
that they " sapped the foundations of manhood and woman-
hood, not only destroyed innocence, but corroded the moral
nature." "The Birmingham Daily Mail" declared that
"Zola simply wallowed in Immorality." "The Whitehall
Review " openly clamoured for the prosecution of his pub-
lisher. "The Weekly Dispatch" impudently inquired, "If
Mr. Vizetelly gives us Zola, why does he pick <La Terre1?
And if Daudet, why pick ' Sapho ' ? " — thus ignoring the fact
that the firm published virtually all of the former's stories,
and several of the latter's, and conveying, for its own pur-
poses, a false impression to its readers. Indeed, misrepre-
sentation of the facts was to be found in many directions.
A few newspapers wrapped themselves in their dignity and
said nothing ; and a few remained fairly cool and sensible :

208 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

"The Standard;1 ^The Scottish Leader," "The Scotsman,"
"The Radical Leader/* "The Bradford Observer" "The
Country Gentleman," " Piccadilly," " The Newcastle Chron-
icle/' and * The Western Daily Press." There may have been
a few others, for the writer does not claim that his collec-
tion of press cuttings is absolutely complete ; but after ex-
amining some hundreds of extracts he finds little that is not
mendacious or steeped in religious bigotry, puritanical pru-
dery, or gross ignorance. And at all events it is certain that
an overwhelming majority of British editors and "leader-
writers " endorsed the views of the Pharisees.

The campaign was then carried to a decisive stage. A
firm of solicitors, (toilette & Collette, applied at Bow Street
police-court for a summons against Henry Vizetelly for
having published three obscene books, to wit, " Nana,* " The
Soil* (*I* Terref>)> and « Piping-Hot" (" Pot-BouiUe "), by
Emila Zola* The summons was granted, and on August 10,
1888, Vwetelly appeared to answer it The prosecution
had been entrusted to Mr. Asquith, — now best known
as a politician, — and he, in opening his case, was about
to deal with "Nana," when the magistrate, Mr. (afterwards
Sir) John Bridge, who evidently had already made up his
mind respecting the case, suggested that he should take the
worst of the three books, namely " The Soil," — for which, by
the way, Zola had received the decoration of the Legion of
Honour three weeks previously ! Counsel assented, referred
the magistrate to various pages, and then solemnly declared
that this book and the two others were " the three most im-
moral books ever published ! " But having thus revealed
how very limited was his knowledge of literature, he added,
fairly enough, that it was claimed for "The Soil" that it

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOKMER 269

had been published with a high moral object — namely, to
show the degradation of the French peasant and the neces-
sity of alteration in the laws by which he was governed.

Vizetelly's solicitor, Mr, Lickfold (of Messrs. Lewis &
Lewis), argued on his client's behalf that he had a perfect
right to publish these translations, the French originals of
which were circulated in Great Britain without let or
hindrance; and he contrasted them with English works
which were sold widely and freely, such as Byron's "Don
Juan," and Shakespeare's * Merry Wives of Windsor." Far
from the incriminated books being the three most immoral
ever written, said Mr. Lickfold, there were many within the
cognisance of all men of any education which were very
much worse. But the magistrate curtly intimated that it
was a case for a jury to decide, and he forthwith committed
the defendant for trial at the Central Criminal Court, ad-
mitting him, meanwhile, to bail in his own recognisances.

Vizetelly's committal led to great rejoicing among the
Pharisees; and to improve the occasion the "National
Vigilants " summoned a bookseller named Thomson at
Guildhall (September 7) for selling an English version
of Boccaccio's "Decameron." Mr. Forrest Fulton — subse-
quently knighted and appointed Common Sergeant of the
City of London — prosecuted and asked for a committal, but
Mr. Horace Avory, defendant's counsel, replied that the
" Decameron " had been in circulation for over four hundred
years, that there were three copies of the work in the Eng-
lish language in the Guildhall Library and soijae two
hundred in the British Museum; and he contended that
this classical work was not indecent in the eyes of the law.
Mr. Alderman Phillips, who heard the case, quietly re-

270 &BOLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

marked that he himself had read the book both in Italian
and in English, and he refnsed to send the defendant for
trial, as he did not believe that any jury would return a
conviction.

This was a rebuff for the fanatics, who now concentrated
their energy on the prosecution of Vizetelly. The latter
had taken his committal in a defiant spirit, promptly issu-
ing the following notice to his customers: "The trade is
informed that there are no legal restrictions on the sale
of 'Nana,' 'Piping Hot,' and 'The Soil/ and that none
can be imposed until a jury has pronounced adversely
against these books which the publishers still continue
to supply." This announcement, which was perhaps ill
advised — though in counsel's opinion well within one's
legal rights — momentarily enraged the " Vigilants," but
they were about to receive important help. The Govern-
ment, encouraged by the press, took up the prosecution, thus
relieviBg the agitators of the cost of their suit.

Affairs now began to assume a more serious aspect, the
question was no longer one of fighting a band of fanatics,
but of contending against the law-officers of the Crown
who would bring all the weight of their authority to
bear upon the jury. In these circumstances Vizetelly
decided to print a series of extracts from the works of
English classic authors,1 by way of showing that if Zola's
novels were suppressed one ought also to suppress some
of the greatest works in English literature. These extracts,
which were preceded by quotations from Macaulay on the
suggested suppression of the works of Congreve, "Wycherley,

1 "Extracts principally from English Classics," etc,, 4to. London, 1888.
(Printed for private circulation.)

ZOLA, NOYBLIST AND EEFORMER 271

etc., and b j Zola's own explanation of the scope and purpose
of Ms Eougon-Macquart series, covered a very wide field.
Among the many authors laid under contribution were
Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, John
Ford, Thomas Carew, Sir George Etherege, Dryden, Con-
greve, Otway, Prior, Defoe, Swift, Sterne, Fielding, Smollett,
Byron, etc., the series running from the time of Elizabeth
to the early part of the nineteenth century. At the same
time Vizetelly drafted an open letter to Sir A, K. Stephen-
son, the Solicitor to the Treasury, who now conducted the
prosecution, and copies of the letter and of the extracts
were forwarded to all the members of the Government
and the leading London newspapers. The letter ran as
follows : —

Sm, — As the Treasury, after a lapse of four years since the
first appearance of the translations of M. Zola's novels, has taken
upon itself the prosecution instituted for the suppression of these
books, I beg leave to submit to your notice some hundreds of
Extracts, chiefly from English classics, and to ask you if in the
event of M. Zola's novels being pronounced "obscene libels,**
publishers will be allowed to continue issuing In their present
form the plays of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger,
and other old dramatists, and the works of Defoe, Dryden, Swift,
Prior, Sterne, Fielding, Smollett, and a score of other writers —
all containing passages far more objectionable than any that can
be picked out from the Zola translations published by me.

I admit that the majority of the works above referred to were
written many years ago, still they are largely reprinted at the
present day — at times in Editions de litze at a guinea per volume,
and at others in People's Editions, priced as low as sixpence, —
so that while at the period they were written their circulation
was comparatively small, of late years it has increased almost a
hundred-fold.

272 tMHJB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

So long *a the present prosecution was in the hands of the
fio»tict who initiated "The Maiden Tribute " of "The Pall Mall
Gaiette,1* and whose mouthpieces in both Houses of Parliament
haw gdled th® Legislature with cock and bull sensational stories
of there being ten houses in a single London street where young
girls sr© accommodated with private rooms and supplied with
indaeent books for perusal, ... so long m the prosecution re-
mained in those hands, I waa content to leave the decision to the
sound common-sense of an English jury. Now, however, that the
Government has thought proper to throw its weight into the scale,
with the view of suppressing a class of books which the law
has never previously interfered with — otherwise the works I
have quoted from could only be issued in secret and circulated by
stealth — circumstances are changed, and I ask for my own and
other publishers1 guidance whether, if Zola's novels are to be inter-
dicted, €f Tom Jones " and " Roderick Random,n " Moll Flanders *
and "The Country Wife,* "The Maid's Tragedy " and "The
Bekpsi/* in all of which the grossest passages are to be met
wiik wll 0U11 be allowed to emulate without risk of legal pro-
ceedings.

IE the Extracts now submitted to your notice, and which you
must be well aware could be multiplied almost a hundred-fold, I
have made no selections from cheap translations of the classics
with their manifold obscenities * . * nor from popular versions of
foreign authors, whose indecency surpasses anything contained in
the English versions of " Nana" and "The Soil," and who, unlike
M. Zola, exhibit no moral tendency whatever in their writings.
. . . The Temperance cause never before found so potential an
advocate as M. Zola proved himself to be in " L' Assommoir/1
A great writer who has exercised the wide influence on contempo-
rary literature that M. Zola has done, whose works have been
rendered into all the principal European languages, and who com-
mands a larger audience than any previous author has ever before
secured, is not to be extinguished by having recourse to the old
form of legal condemnation, and especially at the bidding of a

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFGBJCER 273

fanatical party, the disastrous elects of whose agitation on the
health of our soldiers is recognised and lamented by all military!
and by most sensible, men.

Is life as it really exists — with the Yice and degradation current
among the lower classes, and the greed, the selfishness, and the sen*
suality prevalent in the classes above — to be in future ignored by
the novelist who, in the case of M. Zola, really holds the historian's
pen! Is adual life to be no longer described in fiction, simply
because the withdrawal of the veil that shrouds it displays a state
of things unadapted to the contemplation — not of grown-up men
and women, but of " the young person of fifteen/* who has the
works of all Mr. Mudie's novelists to feast upon f This certainly
was not the law in the days of Defoe, Swift, and Fielding, and it
needed a canting age, that can gloat over the filthiest Divorce
cases, while pretending to be greatly shocked at M. Zola's blunt-
ness j but above all, it required a weak-kneed Government, with
one who was once a literary man himself at its head, [Lord
Salisbury] to strain the law in a way that an educated alder-
man refused to do the other day in reference to Boccaccio's
" Decameron."

Time, we are told, brings round its revenges, and the books
burnt by the common hangman in one age come to b© honoured
in the next. England may render itself ridiculous in the eyes of
Europe by visiting the works of M. Zola with the same kind
of condemnation which the civilised world has accorded to the
writings of the degraded Marquis de Sade; still it requires no
particular foresight to predict that a couple of generations hence,
when the tribe of prejudiced scribes — who, ignorant for the most
part of their own country's literature, now join in the hue and cry
against M. Zola — are relegated to their proper obscurity, the
works of the author of the Rougon-Macquart Family will take
rank as classics among the productions of the great writers of the
past.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

HENRY YIZETELLY.
18

274 tlCELE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

The letter was dated September 18, 1888, on which very
day the sessions of the Central Criminal Court began, but
the Crown applied for a postponement of the trial, and as
Yketelly's counsel, who had been instructed to oppose any
postponement, failed to attend, and Vizetelly himself was
refused admittance by an officious policeman, the case was at
once put off until October. This was very prejudicial
to Vizetelly's business, particularly as the attacks of certain
prints did not cease. Looking back, it greatly astonishes
the writer that no application was ever made to commit the
publishers of several London and provincial newspapers for
circulating comments on a case which was sub judice,
comments well calculated to prevent the defendant from
obtaining a fair trial But that idea does not seem to have
occurred either to Vizetelly or to anybody about him. He
at fizst had felt fairly confident respecting the issue of the
cue, and, as an old journalist* had entertained nothing
but contempt for the terriers of the profession who barked
at his heels. But his confidence had been shaken by the
intervention of the Government and was finally undermined
by well-meaning friends who, owing to the postponement of
the proceedings, had many an opporttinity to tender counsel.
Their motives were most honourable and praiseworthy, no
doubt But the effects of their solicitude were disastrous.
" In the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom," it has
been said, but in Vizetelly1 s case there came chaos. While
some urged him to fight, others begged that he would do no
such thing. There was an incessant chassS-croise of advice ;
and Vizetelly, now resolving on one course, and now on
another, was at last at a loss what to do. Had he been
a younger man the case would have been very different, for

tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 275

in his prime he had evinced much energy of disposition,
and in difficult moments had relied on his own sound com-
mon-sense. But he was now sixty-eight years old, and
though he was still of most industrious habits, the strenu-
ous life he had led had left its mark upon him. Moreover,
a complaint from which he suffered had taken a very
serious turn, and frequent physical suffering was not con-
ducive to perspicuity and energy of mind. Again, there
was the position of his business to be considered. In conse-
quence of the prosecution and the misrepresentations of the
newspapers, the trade became afraid to handle any books he
published, and thus his sales rapidly decreased. Besides,
he found it difficult to obtain efficient counsel for his trial.
The Parnell Commission was then sitting, and most of the
great men of the bar were retained in it. Mr. (now Sir
Robert) Finlay, Q. C., who was applied to, could not take
the brief, having in hand already a large number, which
the barristers engaged before the commission had been
obliged to decline. Other men were similarly circumstanced,
and there was one who honestly admitted that he did not
like the case, and would therefore prove a very poor advo-
cate. Eventually Mr. Francis B. Williams, Q. C., [Recorder
of Cardiff, was retained, with Mr. A. R Cluer, now a London
police magistrate, as his junior.

Beset as he was by various friends, who held that in the
state of public opinion he was not likely to secure an
acquittal, Vizetelly at last allowed some inquiries to be
made as to what would happen if he pleaded guilty and
withdrew the three incriminated Zola translations, such as
they were then, from circulation. A letter bearing on this
question, says : " If the rest of Zola's works that are open

276 tifttE ZOLA, NOTELIST AND REFORMER

to objection are withdrawn, the Solicitor-general will be
content that the defendant be not sentenced to imprison-
ment* He thinks that tie taxed costs of the prosecution
should be paid, and will leave the amount of fine (if any)
to the judge, not pressing for a heavy one if the defendant
is a man of small means.1* This communication gave a new
aspect to the case. The question was no longer one of three
of Zola's works ; all of them might have to be withdrawn.
Private testimony respecting the narrow puritanism animat-
ing the authorities at that moment indicated that they
would show no fairness in considering the matter of other
books by Zola, at least in the form of translations ; for it is
a fact that while Vizetelly's expurgated English versions
were being prosecuted, the French volumes still entered the
country and were freely sold there and circulated by libra-
ries ! Thw aE who knew French were privileged to read
Zola wrlffii&m, whereas theme who did not know that lan-
guage were not allowed to peruse expurgated renderings of
Ms books. Under the circumstances set forth above, Vize-
telly finally resolved to contest the case ; but, unfortunately,
the inquiries instituted on his behalf had made his hesita-
tion known to the prosecution and inclined it therefore to
vigorous courses.

The trial took place on October 31, 1888, at the Old Bai-
ley, before the Recorder, Sir Thomas Chambers, whose literary
bent may be indicated in a few words : his favourite poet was
Hannah More. The jury appeared to be of the usual petty-
trading class. The prosecution was conducted by the
Solicitor-general, then Sir Edward Clarke, who had already
made a considerable reputation by certain cross-examinations,
and who at a subsequent period defended the unhappy

£ftOLB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBHEB 277

Oscar Wilde, when the latter was convicted of unnatural
offences* Sir Edward opened the proceedings at no great
length. He first pointed out that, in the case of "The
Queen t?. Hicklm/* Lord Chief Justice Cockburn had ruled
that the object for which a publication might be issued had
nothing to do with the question of its obscenity, the test of
which was whether the matter so published had a tendency
to deprave and corrupt those into whose hands the publica-
tion might fall He also mentioned that it had been ruled
in the Hicklin case that no excuse was supplied by the
circumstance that other literature — especially that of two
or three centuries previously — might contain passages
conflicting with one's judgment as to what was fit for cir-
culation. Then he passed to " The Soil,** asserting that it
was full of bestial obscenity, without a spark of literary
genius or the expression of an elevated thought. That, of
course, was his opinion of the book ; and several years later
he amused a great many people by giving his opinions on
literature at large, thereby arousing the ire of a distinguished
writer, Mr. Edmund Gosse, who unfortunately made the
mistake of telling Sir Edward Clarke that he was a lawyer
and not a litUrateur — even as Mr. Chamberlain in his fis-
cal campaign subsequently reproached Mr. Asquith for dis-
cussing business when he was not a business man. But
whatever might be Sir Edward Clarke's calling, he had a
right to hold opinions on literature and to express them.
Even a tinker may have literary views and may make them
known, though it does not follow that they will be adopted
by the community generally.

Having concluded his address, the Solicitor-general pro-
ceeded to read some passages from " The Soil," and he had

278 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

scarcely begun when a faint stir among the public brought a
loud cry of " Silence ! " from the ushers. Ernest Vizetelly,
who was seated at the solicitors' table, then turned and
perceived several French newspaper correspondents and
others striving to preserve their gravity, which had been
disturbed by the curious manner in which Sir Edward
Clarke pronounced the French names confronting him in
the pages of " The Soil" For a time one might have im-
agined he was reading a novel of the kail-yard, for he
persistently pronounced *f Jean" as if it were a Scottish
name. For instance:

" There was a lass, and she was fair,
At kirk and market to be seen;
"When a' the Imirest maids were met,
The Mrest maid was boxmie Jean."1

The effect was the more curious as in Zola's book Jean, of
course, is a man, whereas from Sir Edward Clarke's pronun-
ciation it might have been inferred that he was a woman !
However, the slaughter of French names did not continue
long. The jurymen expressed their views clearly enough by
interrupting a passage describing how the girl Frangoise
Mouche brings the cow, La Coliche, to the bull at the farm
of La Borderie. The mere idea that such a thing could
happen evidently amazed and disgusted them; but their
surprise would probably have been less great if, instead of
being Londoners, they had been yokels from the country,
for, as various correspondents informed the writer subsequent
to the trial, instances of the same kind could have been
easily adduced from different parts of the United Kingdom,
notably Wales.

* "The Poetical Works of Robert Burns," Aldine Edition, YoL II, p. 225

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 279

One of the Pecksniffian arguments at that time was that
Zola wrote for his own countrymen, and that even if he were
justified in addressing them as he did, there was no excuse
for placing translations of his works in the hands of English
people, to whom those works did not apply. This was ridic-
ulous, English society being quite as deeply, though by
reason of the national hypocrisy, not so openly corrupt as
French society. As for the case of Fran§oise Mouche and
the cow, La Coliche, one might have found, as already stated,
numerous instances of young girls being similarly employed
in Great Britain. But of course such matters were not to be
spoken of or written about ! They must be cloaked over,
covered up, so that they might continue unhindered ! Be-
sides, it was abominable to assert such things. The rural
districts of England were moral paradises, safe in the guar-
dianship of parson and squire ! Only London was immoral,
poor, wicked London, which bears the weight of many a sin
which is not its own. It would be interesting, indeed, to know
how far those moral paradises, the rural districts, contribute
to the illegitimate births with which London is at times
reproached. Is there even a single day in the year when
London does not witness the arrival in its midst of some
unfortunate country girls who have left their homes to hide
their shame among the multitude of its inhabitants ?

But one must return to the trial. When Sir Edward
Clarke had read a few of his extracts the demeanour of the
jury and their repeated interruptions plainly indicated what
their verdict would be. Even then, no doubt, the better
course would have been to let the trial proceed, in order
that counsel might have his opportunity of presenting the
defence, if not for the enlightenment of the jury, at least

280 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER

for that of the public at large. Mere passages, — there
were twenty-five, some, no doubt, rather long ones, incrimi-
nated in a volume of hundreds of pages — proved nothing.
One might find scores and scores of passages in the Bible
which if taken without the context and the general know-
ledge one has of the book might make it appear undesirable.
In the case of "The Soil," the facts should have been
expounded, whether they influenced the jury or not.
But Vizetelly's counsel, Mr. Williams, was evidently quite
disheartened; he deemed it useless to prolong the case;
and so after the briefest of consultations the plea of " not
guilty" was withdrawn for one of "guilty." It was a
complete collapse,

Mr. Williams, however, began to address the Eecorder
in mitigation of punishment, and in doing so referred to
Zola as " a great French writer." " Oh, no, a voluminous
Trench writer, if you like," said Sir Edward Clarke. " A
popular French writer," the Recorder suggested. "A writer
who certainly stands high among the literary men of
France," Mr. Williams retorted; whereupon Sir Edward
Clarke exclaimed in a pompous way, " Do not malign the
literature of France ! " Whether the Solicitor-general was
qualified to express any opinion of weight on the literature
of France might well have been doubted by all who had
heard him pronounce the name " Jean." But Mr. Williams
got in a last word. Confirming his description of Zola,
he said: "It is apparent to all who have studied the
literature of France at the present day." l And he might
have added that Zola had but lately been made a knight

1 " The Queen v, Henry Vizetelly." Transcript from the shorthand notes
of Messrs. Barnett and Buckler, of Eolls Chambers, Chancery Lane»

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEE 281

of the Legion of Honour for the very book, for having issued
an expurgated edition of which Vizetelly was about to
be punished. On that subject Sir Edward Clarke stated
that he did not ask for imprisonment, and however much
one may differ from him, particularly in literary matters,
it is essential one should recognise that, having won the
day, he showed some forbearance. Vizetelly had natu-
rally pleaded guilty, not only to the indictment respecting
"The Soil," but to those respecting "Nana" and "Piping
Hot," which were not gone into. The Kecorder admonished
him and then sentenced him to pay a fine of a hundred
pounds and to enter into his recognisances in two hundred
pounds to be of good behaviour for twelve months.1

But a very important matter has still to be mentioned.
A certain undertaking was given in court respecting the
Zola translations published by Vizetelly. The present
writer, his brothers, and many friends who were present,
as well as the defendant himself, distinctly understood that
undertaking to be that the three incriminated volumes and
all other works by Zola which were as objectionable as
those three should be withdrawn from circulation; but
it was not said that none of Zola's books should ever
be sold. On that point it is advisable to quote the short-
hand writers' transcript, which shows how the Solicitor-
general interpreted the undertaking : " Sir Edward, Clarke ;
Of course I am very glad that a course has been taken
which will not only stop from circulation the three books
contained in these indictments, but which carries with

1 Sir Thos, Chambers remarked that the books were not of a seductive
character, but " repulsive and revolting," and of course that was what Zola, in
a sense, had tried to make them.

282 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

it an undertaking by Mr, Vizetelly that he will be no
party to the circulation of any other of the works which
M. Zola has produced, any others — I should like to say —
which are at least as objectionable as those which are
indicted before your Lordship to-day ."

According to the writer's recollection, and that of his
relatives and friends, Mr. Williams in giving the under-
taking applied to the incriminated books the expression,
*< in their present form " ; but these words do not appear in
the shorthand notes which the writer holds. Nevertheless
the language of Sir Edward Clarke suggests that some
similar words had been used. It followed that Vizetelly,
in all good faith, believed that he was entitled to sell
Zola's books if he rendered them unobjectionable by further
expurgation. But when other proceedings ensued it was
even suggested that he was not entitled to sell them under
any cirenmstances ; and he was actually admonished for
having inserted in his catalogue the words "Undergoing
revision1* after the titles of "La Terre" and "Nana"
This plainly showed that the real secret desire of the
authorities and the " Vigilants " was to suppress translations
of Zola altogether. They cared not a jot what Vizetelly
might attempt in order to satisfy their narrow puritanism,
they were determined to regard all expurgation as inade-
quate, to pursue and persecute Vizetelly till he abandoned
that author altogether. And to effect this they were ready
to strain the law as it had never, perhaps, been strained
before.

Meantime Zola, who naturally heard of Vizetelly's trial,
attached, personally, little importance to it. He held that
the English were making themselves ridiculous by setting

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEB 283

up a puritanical standard of morality when their own
literature contained many examples of outspokenness going
far beyond anything that he had ventured upon. Apart
from the writers of the past, he had some acquaintance
with modern English novels such as had been translated
into French, there being various series of that kind;1
and he took the view that many of them, with the glamour
they cast over vice and even their artful reticence, were
certainly calculated to demoralise people, whereas his own
rough frankness could only give the reader a shock, as in-
deed it was intended to do. At the same time he was
not surprised at the outcry, for there had been one in
France, where the ground was far better prepared for out-
spokenness than in England, where the cant of the Victorian
era had ever striven to set restrictions on the novelist's
art. Thackeray, we know, had chafed under them, and
had written on his preface to " Pendennis " : " Even the
gentlemen of our age . , , we cannot show as they are,
with the notorious foibles and selfishness of their lives and
their education. Since the author of 'Torn Jones' was
buried no writer of fiction among us has been permitted
to depict to Ms utmost power a MAN. We must drape
him, and give Mm a certain conventional simper, Society
will not tolerate the Natural2 in our Art."

1 On consulting the ** BibliograpMe de la France ** some years ago, for
particulars concerning English fiction in France, the writer found that in
1886 French publishers issued translations of fifty-four English novels ; in
1887, translations of sixty-one ; and in 1888, thirty-nine. The total number
of English (and American) works of all classes published in French in 1888
was one hundred and twenty-three, but of these forty -two were merely new
editions, leaving the number of the translations first issued in that year at
eighty-one.

a This is perhaps the earliest reference to Naturalism in English literature.

284 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

As for the issue of the affair for the Vketellys, of whom
Zola then knew little, having only had a few business trans-
actions with them, he did not feel deeply affected, for
the matter seemed to him to resolve itself into a moderate
pecuniary loss which, he imagined, the defendant would
be well able to incur, having made considerable profits on
the incriminated books.1 Tor the rest, when in later years
Ernest Vizetelly showed him various newspaper cuttings
imputing to him a variety of statements, Zola remarked that
some he had never made, while as for others his words had
evidently been misconstrued.

As it happened, the affair proved far more serious for
Yizetelly & Co. than Zola had thought possible. The
firm then had several thousand pounds locked up in illus-
trated books which were not nearly ready for publication.
The sales of its existing books had been declining for
several months, so that its receipts had become small,
though its expenses remained heavy and it had liabilities
such as are always incurred in trade. Under these circum-
stances it was felt that the Zola translations, being a
valuable property, could not be entirely sacrificed. The
undertaking given in court was interpreted in the sense
previously indicated, and, though the books were absolutely

1 In various instances Vizetelly & Co. had acquired its interest in Zola's
works from third parties who had bought the rights direct from the author.
In some cases, under the law of that time, the copyrights had lapsed ; and
anybody could issue translations of the hooks so circumstanced. This will
explain the circulation of several of the American versions in England.
However Vizetelly & Co., as soon as practicable, put things on such a basis
as to protect all Zola's new books, purchasing the sole British rights from him
or from his assigns. At the outset Zola received moderate sums; later, after
Ernest Vizetelly and Messrs. Chatto had taken his interests in hand, the
payments rose considerably. In America a royalty of fifteen per cent waa
usually paid, Zola taking two-thirds and E, Yizetelly one-third of it.

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOBMEE 285

withdrawn for a time, it was decided to put them on the
market again after they had been adequately expurgated.

A good deal of this work was entrusted to Ernest
Vizetelly, but he was hampered by important restrictions.
He learnt that the books were stereotyped and that his
alterations must be such as might be effected in the plates,
for it would be too expensive to reset the books in their
entirety, though a few pages might be reset here and there.
Under these conditions, as sentences and paragraphs often
had to be struck out or considerably abbreviated, it became
very difficult to fill the gaps which occurred. Ernest Viz-
etelly at least did the best he could. He spent two months
on the work and deleted or modified three hundred and
twenty-five pages of the fifteen volumes handed to Mm.
Henry Vizetelly was in poor health at the time ; but he
himself attended to a few volumes, and his son's work was
sent to him for inspection before it was forwarded to the
printers. Whether he himself went through it in its
entirety or not cannot be stated positively ; but at all events
the work was passed, and some of the Zola volumes were
reissued.

Soon afterwards the "National Vigilants," elated by
their previous easy victory, returned to the warpath.
Henry Vizetelly was again summoned, this time for selling
the following books : " The Assommoir," a Germinal," " Fat
and Thin" ("Le Ventre de Paris"), "The Eush for the
Spoil " (" La Curfe "), « AbW Mouret's Transgression," " How
Jolly Life is " ("La Joie de Vivre"), "The Fortune of the
Kougons," and "His Excellency E. Eougon," by Zola;
" Madame Bovary," by Gustave Flaubert ; " A Love Crime,"
by Paul Bourget ; "A Woman's Life " and " A Ladies' Man "

286 TftMTLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

(MBal Ami**), % Guy de Maupassant At the same time
W* M. Thomson, discharged when summoned for "The
Decameron/* was prosecuted for selling a translation of
" The Heptameron," as well as other works ; and other book-
sellers were likewise proceeded against in connection with
some of the American versions of Zola's novels. The cases
were heard by Mr. Vaughan, a testy old magistrate who long
presided at Bow Street, and who committed Vizetelly for
trial with respect to the following works: Zola's "Abb^
Mouret's Transgression/* "The Rush for the Spoil," "Fat
and Thin" "His Excellency E. Bougon," "How Jolly Life
is " ; Bouiget's " Love Crime " and Maupassant's " Ladies'
Man,*1 A few objections had been raised in the press
apropos of the prosecution of ** Madame Bovary," and with
the gracious approval of the great Stead of the "Maiden
Tribute,1* the summons respecting tibat work was eventually
adjourned nne die.1

"When Vizetelly returned to his office from Bow Street on
the day of his committal, he took the only course consistent
with integrity. He assigned everything he possessed for
the benefit of his creditors, in order that his business might
be liquidated. It was impossible to carry it on any longer.
The wreckers had resolved to ruin him, and had succeeded
to their hearts* desire. Friends came and expressed their
sympathy — among others, Sir Henry Irving, the late Sir
John Gilbert, and Mr. Birket Foster — but there was virtu-
ally no opportunity for any public protest Not a news-

1 The same course was taken with, the summonses for " L'Assonamoir,"
"Germinal," and "The Fortune of the Rougons." And that against
Thomson with regard to "The Heptameron" was withdrawn because the
prosecution had mislaid its copy of the work.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 287

paper now dared to print a word on behalf of this old
servant of the press whom the " Vigilante " had chosen
for their victim. On the morrow of the first trial the
"leader" writers had hastened to avail themselves of his
plea of guilty to pass unanimous condemnation on him.
The delighted " Vigilante " had promptly printed and circu-
lated extracts from the "Times," "St. James's Gazette/'
"Whitehall Review," "Star" "Globe," "Morning Adver-
tiser," " Saturday Review," " Methodist Times " " Liverpool
Mercury," and " Western Morning News " ; and those sam-
ples of English press opinion might have been multiplied
indefinitely. They showed all parties in agreement: the
Tories and the Radicals, the Puritans and the Publicans.
Coote, the secretary to the " Vigilants," had become censor
wiorum, and all bowed to his authority. Yet some members
of this so-called " National Vigilance Association " had been
mixed up in various nefarious matters. There had been, as
Mr. George Moore subsequently wrote, "the case of an
unfortunate foreign prince, who was dragged into court
on a charge of abduction or seduction, or both; when
the matter came to be sifted it was found that he was
absolutely and wholly innocent. So conclusive and so
unimpeachable was the evidence, that Mr. Besley, who
prosecuted for the Association, had to admit that he had
nothing to say, and the judge replied, * I should think not,
indeed.1 "*

Again there was a notorious Leamington case in which
the "Vigilants" prosecuted, and in which, as Mr. Moore
again pointed out, it was proved that two women clandes-

1 "The New Censorship of Literature/' by George Moore, "New York
Herald," London edition, July 28, 1889,

288 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER

tinely took an innocent girl from her employment, piled her
with filthy questions, threatened her, and induced her to
sign a paper which might have led to a boy of fifteen being
sent to prison for two years ! *

And this was the class of person that assumed the prerog-
ative of Literary Censorship. The press prostrated itself
before the new Terror, and the Government supported it by
again taking up the prosecution of Vizetelly. The trustees
of his estate resolved to fight the case and provided funds
for that purpose, but while the selection of counsel was in
abeyance, Mr. Frank Harris, then editor of "The Fort-
nightly Review/' and one of the few who realised that an
odious tyranny was being established, generously offered to
bear all Vizetelly's expenses. Mr. Harris desired, however,
that the defence should now be entrusted entirely to Mr.
Cluer, who had acted as Vketelly's junior counsel at the
first trial, and who had also appeared for him at the recent
police court proceedings. There were various advantages
in such a course* Mr. Chiefs knowledge of the French
language was perfect; he had read Zola's works in the
original, and he knew with what a lofty purpose Zola
wrote. The present writer favoured the suggested arrange-
ment, but he had no power in the matter. Any sugges-
tions he made were invariably set aside throughout the
affair, on the ground that he had not been long resident in
England, that there were many things which he did not
properly understand, and so forth. There was some truth,
no doubt, in those objections ; but it often happens that a

and "Daily Chronicle," January 12, 13, and 16, 1894. In the
latter journal (January 13) Coote denied that " threats were used to induce the
girl to confess crimes" ; Mr. Moore retorted (January 16) by giving the report
of the case.

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMER 289

person who stands a little apart from a battle has a clearer
perception of its chances than those who are actually en-
gaged in it. The writer feared that a fresh conviction was
virtually inevitable, but he also felt that Mr. Cluer would do
his best for his client, and that the ship, though it might
well go down, would then at least do so with colours flying.
But it was held imperative that a Queen's Counsel must be
engaged, for it would be ridiculous to pit a stuff-gowns-
man against the Solicitor-general! And so, after various
delays and difficulties, as on the former occasion, the late
Mr. Cock, Q. C., was retained, Mr. Cluer again being secured
as junior counsel

Henry Tizetelly and his trustees were still resolved to
fight the case, after their own fashion; and by way of
answering any charge of having broken the previous un-
dertaking it was proposed that Ernest Vizetelly should
give evidence respecting the recent expurgation of Zola's
books. His father inquiring if he were prepared to do so,
he immediately assented. He went further: he agreed to
take, so far as the Zola volumes were concerned, at least
the odium of this second affair on himself by assuming
responsibility for what had been dona It was impossible
for him to hesitate, — no son would hesitate to shield his
father as far as might be possible,1 — but now that the
time has come to write of these matters he owes it to
himself, and particularly to his children, to point out that
the responsibility which he assumed was not really his.
The expurgatory work he had accomplished had been lim-

1 Frank Vizetelly, on whom as one of the managers of the business the
summons was actually served, had offered to take full liability for the sales,
"but his father would not allow it,

290 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Ited "by the conditions imposed on him; within them he
had done his best; but, even then, he had submitted his
work for approval, saying: "This is all I can do. If any-
thing further is required another must do it" He knows,
by the " proof " slips in his possession, that a few further
alterations were made in his work, the bulk of which,
however, was passed, and sent to the printers* He was
not surprised by that, and would not be surprised by it
now, for he holds that the alterations he made were suffi-
cient to satisfy everybody except fanatical Puritans. At
the same time, in that hour of frenzied cant and unscru-
pulous injustice the responsibility he assumed was no light
one, for even though he could not be proceeded against
at law, the odium attaching to it might be very preju-
dicial to him. And while he had a wife and children to
support, he had no interest in his father's business be-
yond being its paid servant; he knew that it had been
established for the benefit of his younger brothers ; which
consideration had largely deterred him from pressing his
own advice during the affair, for he did not wish to be
accused of attempting to supplant anybody. If, to-day, he
has pointed out the actual circumstances it is because he
does not wish anybody to believe, as many have inferred for
years, that his father's ruin and imprisonment proceeded
from any neglect of his. It is true he has long allowed
that to be thought, — it might be assumed from the account
of his father in the " Dictionary of National Biography," —
but the facts were really such as have been stated here.

Vizetelly & Co, intending to fight the case, as soon as
the amount of Mr. Cock's fee had been ascertained it was
voluntarily increased to a larger one in order to induce

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 291

Mm to do his utmost. An attempt was made to arrange
a consultation some days before the trial, but as a matter
of fact Mr. Cock was not seen until about half an hour
before the case opened at the Central Criminal Court, on
May 30, 1889. Ernest Vizetelly accompanied his father,
who was now in very bad health indeed. Mr. Cluer intro-
duced them to Mr. Cock, and a conversation took place in
a room adjoining the robing room at the Old Bailey. At
the first words, Mr. Cock declared there could be no de-
fence. He did not pause to argue. It was plain he wished
to dispose of the case as quickly as possible. The defend-
ant, said he, must throw himself on the mercy of the
court, that was the only thing to do. Henry Vizetelly,
who had come to the Old Bailey expecting something very
different, was overwhelmed by this intimation. The blow
was a coup de massue for him, and at first he could say
nothing. His son, likewise very much amazed, and, in
particular, disgusted with this blustering barrister who
threw up the sponge at the moment of going into court,
tried to interject a few words, but was curtly silenced.
There was nothing, nothing to be done, so Cock, Q. C., re-
peated. Under the circumstances he might have returned
the extra fee which had been sent him to induce him to
make a good fight, but he never did. There was, however,
one course that he was willing to take when he saw the
distress of his ailing old client He offered to ascertain
what would be the result of a plea of « guilty." To Vize-
telly's son that seemed a strange course to pursue. He did
not like hanky-panky or aught suggestive of it. However,
Mr. Cock rose — he was a fat, unwieldy man, with a startling
red face — and rolled out of the room. Whom did he actu-

292 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

ally see ? The writer Is not certain, and in a case of uncer-
tainty it is best to stay one's pen. But when Mr. Cock
returned he said in presence of the defendant, his son, and
Mr. Cluer, that the Solicitor-general was not leniently in-
clined and that Vizetelly's recognisances "to be of good
behaviour " would have to be estreated; while the Recorder,
Sir Thomas Chambers, held that there must be some im-
prisonment. Did Henry Vizetelly hear those last words ?
According to his own account, afterwards, he never did; for
had he done so, in spite of all Mr. Cock's bluster, he would
never, he said, have pleaded guilty. But the poor man may
well have misunderstood his counsel. He was in a condi-
tion little short of actual physical collapse* In a dreamy
way, as it were, he gave, or seemed to give, a feeble assent
to everything. Had there been time, his son would have
made an effort to reopen the question, for it occurred to
him that* even then, one might perhaps have dispensed
with Mr. Cock's services and have induced Mr. Cluer to
undertake the defence unaided. But there was no oppor-
tunity for further deliberation ; the court was almost wait-
ing, and one went downstairs to meet the inevitable.

The proceedings were brief* Vizetelly took his stand
at the foot of the solicitors' table, his son who sat there,
and wh.0 at every moment feared to see him fall, holding
his hand the while. For an instant, when challenged, he
hesitated, then ejaculated the word "guilty," much as if
he were expectorating.

Thus the case was never argued on its merits. Of course
the Solicitor-general held that the previous undertaking had
been violated, and asked that the defendant's recognisances
in two hundred pounds should be estreated. Then Mr. Cock

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER 293

spoke of the explication of the books, which in his opinion
a had not gone suffieently far/* and added that the defendant
was in his seventieth year and in very delicate health. On
that point Ernest Vizetelly testified on oath that his father
had suffered for some years from a complaint which had lately
assumed a very serious character and necessitated the con-
stant employment of surgical instruments. He then ima-
gined his examination to be over, and was about to leave
the witness-box when Sir Ed ward Clarke inquired if he were
a member of the firm of Vketelly & Co. The witness an-
swered in the negative, he was a journalist by profession,
and if previously employed by the firm he had then ceased
to be so. But the Solicitor-general pressed him for the pur-
pose, so it seemed, of extracting some undertaking with
respect to the future sale of Zola's works or the destruc-
tion of the existing stock. This the witness had no power
to give, and he was determined to say nothing that might
lead to it being given by others. As the pertinacity of
counsel continued, the witness, feeling somewhat ruffled,
could not refrain from retorting : " You have made the de-
fendant a pauper ! What more do you want ? ** " Now, now,1*
Sir Edward Clarke shouted back, " we want none of that 1 n
" Well, I have nothing else to say," the witness added. * I do
not belong to the firm of Yizetelly & Co., and I now know
nothing about it." Thereupon the Solicitor-general, some-
what discomfited, had to let him go.

The Eecorder then passed sentence. It was useless, he
said, to fine the defendant, as he had no means to pay a fine.
But Ms recognisances must be estreated, and he must go to
prison, as a first-class misdemeanant, for three months.
Vizetelly was at once led below; and his son applied,

294 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

through counsel, for leave to speak with him before he was
removed to jail The Recorder granted permission, but the
son was not allowed to follow his father* He and Mr. Lick-
fold (Vizetelly's solicitor) were told to apply at the small
barred gate of Newgate, immediately adjoining the Old Bailey.
They went thither and were admitted. A warder, or at-
tendant, was told of the permission the judge had given,
and went to make inquiries. Mr. Lickfold retired, and the
writer remained waiting. Presently the attendant returned
and said to him; "The Governor's answer is that you can-
not see the prisoner. The judge has no power to give leave
to see any prisoner when once he has left the court." It
was useless to expostulate. Ernest Vizetelly could only with-
draw, in considerable distress, for he knew that his father
in the state of his health would require prompt attention
and relief; and he had been anxious to do what he could in
that and other matters.1

However, he met his brothers, and various arrangements
were made to provide for their father's comfort. As the
case was to have been fought, there had been no anticipation
that it would end that same day, and nothing was actually
ready. At last, Holloway being the jail where first-class
misdemeanants are usually lodged, application was made
there ; but the officials knew nothing whatever of Vizetelly,
he had not been sent to them. After some discussion

* At the risk of offending some readers by plain speaking the writer feels
he may mention that his father was suffering from a stricture. All medical
men will know the torture that ensues when the sufferer is placed under such
conditions that he cannot obtain relief. The trial having suddenly collapsed,
no medical man was in attendance to give evidence. Had medical evidence
"been given it is possible that Sir T. Chambers might have hesitated to pass a
sentence of imprisonment.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 295

Ernest and his brother Frank Vizetelly, proceeded to
Pentonville, where they were received very courteously by
the deputy governor, who said to them ; " Yes, your father
is here. Why he was sent I do not know; we have no
accommodation for first-class misdemeanants. None has
ever been sent here before* Your father is in a shocking
state, he had been suffering for hours when he arrived here ;
I have placed him temporarily in our infirmary. I tele-
graphed to the Prison Commissioners but have had no
answer. You should go to them at once at Whitehall, and
ask them to remove him to Holloway/'

This was done. The facts were set out in writing and
sent in to some of the Commissioners, who, after an inter-
val of an hour or so, received Frank Vizetelly, and airily
told him that there was no mistake at all, that his father
had been sent to Holloway and would be found there ! The
fact is that, while the sons were waiting, telegraphic instruc-
tions had been sent to Pentonville for Vizetelly's removal.
That could not be effected in an instant on account of his
serious condition, but when he was lodged in the infirmary
at Holloway the Commissioners felt they were safe from
any charge of neglect Ernest Vizetelly, however, was not
disposed to let the matter drop, and having drafted a ques-
tion for the Home Secretary (Mr. Matthews) he wrote to
Mr. Labouchere, M. P., to inquire if he would ask it in the
House of Commons* He received the following character-
istic reply :

Dear Sir, — I do not think that the clerks at the table would
accept the question as written, for it enters too fully into details.
However, be this as it may, I should not be the proper person to
ask it, for I have had many actions for libels, and it would be

296 MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

thought that I had an eye to my future accommodation. As a

matter of tactics, I should advise that no question be asked, for
the only parson who can reduce the sentence is the Home Secre-
tary. I do not know if he will, bnt lie certainly will not if his

back be put up. — Yours faithfully,

H. LABOUCHIRE.

24 G rosreaor Gardens, 8. W,

Jane L [1889].

Mr. Labouehere's advice was certainly good, and it was
followed. That is why the facts have never been disclosed
till now.

Little more need be added here, Henry Vizetelly left a
long account of Ms prison experiences which the writer
may some day print He was fairly well treated at Hollo-
way,1 bnt he writes that after he had left the infirmary
(of which he was long an inmate, as the result of the
neglect in which he was left immediately after his trial)
he had great difficulty in obtaining water of the requisite
heat for the treatment of his complaint, his room (previously
occupied by Edmund Tates) being so far from the kitchens
that, as a rule, the water was almost cold by the time it
reached him. His health naturally deteriorated in confine-
ment, but he did his best to look at things cheerfully, and
found occupation in planning various literary enterprises.
Several friends, notably Edmund Yates, showed great kind-
ness at this time. Mr, George Moore did his best to ven-
tilate the whole question of the prosecution and Robert
Buchanan wrote an able pamphlet under the grim title of
" On Descending into HelL" Ernest VLsetelly was then

1 He had1 tlie usual privileges of a first-class misdemeanant. His food was
sent him from outside, lie had some "books and periodicals at Ms disposal,
and a few articles of furniture were sent from Ms home.

J&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 297

chiefly occupied in preparing and circulating a memorial to
the Home Secretary, praying for his father's release on vari-
ous grounds. Though two or three of the newspapers were
already beginning to think that matters had been car-
ried too far, few journalists, unless friends, were asked for
their signatures ; but Vizetelly's son had the satisfaction of
securing the support of several notable authors with whom
he had never previously held communication. Their letters
of sympathy touched him deeply, and showed him that
though the newspaper press might be so largely under the
thumb of the " National Vigilants," there were men of letters
of high standing who retained all their independence of
thought. A few, it is true, made certain reserves with re-
spect to Zola's works, but all felt that Henry Vketelly
ought not to have been treated so harshly. The writer, un-
fortunately, has preserved no complete list of those who
signed the petition (from one hundred to one hundred and
fifty in number), and he must apologise for the many omis-
sions in the one that follows. It will be noticed that it
contains the names of half a dozen lady writers, as well as
those of some prominent artists, who remembered Vizetelly's
work as a wood-engraver, and all he had done for the
pictorial press :

" Sir Algernon Borthwick (now Lord Glenesk), M. P., Sir E.
W. Watkin, M. P., T. P. O'Connor, M. P., Samuel Storey, M. P.,
Charles Bradlaugh, M. P., Dr. C. Cameron, M. P., The Earl of
Desart, Sir J. E. Millais, R. A., Sir John Gilbert, R. A., W. P.
Frith, R. A., Birket Foster, Linley Sambourne, Harry Furniss,
George du Maurier, Prof. Henry Morley, Prof. Geddes, J. Arthur
Thomson, Edmund Gosse, Dr. R. Garnett, Dr. F. J. Fumivall,
Oscar Browning, John Addington Symonds, Leslie Stephen, Dr.

298 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

R. Maitland Coffin, Norman Maceoll, James S. Cotton, St. Loe
Strachey, HOEU Roden Noel, Havelock Ellis, Robert Buchanan,
Walter Besant, Hon. Lewis Wingfield, Thomas Hardy, George
Moore, W. Clark Russell, H. Rider Haggard, Hall Caine, * Ouida/
Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mrs. E. Lynn Linton, Mrs.
Mona Caird, 'John Strange Winter,' Olive Schreiner, Mabel
Collins, Harriett Jay, G. A. Sala, Edmund Yates, Frank Harris,
Archibald Forbes, H. W. Lucy, H, D, Traill, A. W. Pinero,
William Archer, Augustus Harris, Sir Henry Irving, Henry Arthur
Jones, Fitzgerald Molloy, Ernest Rhys, S. W. Orson, Hon. F, C,
Lawley, H. Sutherland Edwards, J. C. Parkinson, D. L., Arthur
Symons, Alex. C. Ewald, W. R. S, Ralston, Max O'Rell, Savile
Clarke, Brinsley Nicholson, Q. Laurence Gomme, Frank A, Mar-
shall, Grant Allen, Frederick and James Greenwood, G. B. Le
Fanu, F. C. Philips, William Sharp, C. H. Williamson, William
Senior, H. T. Wharton, Julius Mayhew, W. H. Dircks, Frank
T, MarxiflOs, W, Faux, of W. H. Smith <fc Sons."

Various persons in official positions, whom etiquette pre-
vented from signing the memorial — for instance Lord Lyi>
ton (" Owen Meredith"), then British Ambassador in Paris,
— conveyed privately to Ernest Vizetelly their hope that it
might prove successful, but the only response of the Home
Secretary was that he could not advise her Majesty to inter-
fere in the case. Thus Yizetelly completed his " time " at
Holloway, being released at the end of August, 1889. He
returned to his home at Putney, and afterwards removed
with his daughter and his son Arthur to Heatherlands, near
Tilford, Surrey, where he spent, in suffering, the few years
that were left him. They happily sufficed for him to see in
England a considerable revulsion of feeling with respect to
femile Zola — of whom he had prophesied, in his letter to
Sir A. K. Stephenson, that time would bring round its re-

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 299

venges. It will be necessary to allude to tim hereafter in
connection with Zola's first stay in London, but here one
need only add that he died on January 1, 1894, after a final
distressing illness. And the little graveyard of the village
of Churt became the last resting-place of the man who was
persecuted by the Pecksniffs of Great Britain, and whom the
** Dictionary of National Biography " describes as the pioneer
of the world's pictorial press.

THE LAST EOUGON-MACQUAETS — THE FEENGH
ACADEMY— A VISIT TO LONDON

1888-1893

** Le R&Te M — How Zola rid himself of Ms obesity — ** Germinal " as a play

— " La BSte Hnniaine '* — Zola longs to stagger the world — He becomes
a candidate for the Academy — Why he failed to secure election — His
novels "Lf Argent" and "La Debacle" — Ernest Vketelly's position —
He resolves to revive Zola in England — Translation of ** La D&b&cle " —
Its reception in England — English opinion and Zola — French attacks on
him — He visits Genoa — He writes ** Le Docteur Pascal " — Conclusion of
the Rongon-Macquart series — A few figures respecting it — Zola is made
an Officer of the Legion of Honour — A reception in the Bois de Boulogne

— An address to the Paris students — Zola and the Socie'te* des Gens de
Lettre* — He is invited to London by the Institute of Journalists — He
hesitates to accept the invitation — Correspondence with Yizetelly — His
reception in London — His paper on ** Anonymity in Journalism " — At
the Crystal Palace, the Imperial Institute, and the Guildhall -— The
Authors' Club dinner— Visits to Westminster Abbey, the National Gal-
lery, and the British Musenm — Some general impressions of London —
The English visit and the French Academy.

IN 1888, while Zola was being attacked so virulently in
England he produced Ms story "Le K§ve," which some
people regarded as indicating not only a new departure on
his part but an endeavour to conciliate his enemies. In the
first place, however, with regard to literary style, " Le Re've "
was merely a return to the idyllic manner of " Les Contes &
Mnon," and " La Faute de l'Abb£ Mouret " ; and secondly
it has been shown I that the idea of this work occurred to
the novelist even before he had finished "La Terre," and that
he started on it immediately his book on the peasantry
was completed. It seems certain, therefore, that " Le B§ve "
i Sherard, 7. c., p. 228.

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 301

was not the forced outcome of any outcry, as many have
supposed, — as a matter of fact Zola never yielded to any
outcries, — but came from him spontaneously, as part of
his general scheme. Beginning the book in August, 1887,
he finished it in August the following year, when it ran
serially (from April till October) in a publication called " La
Eevue Illustrde."

About the time when Yizetelly's difficulties with his
English translations were just beginning, the British rights
in "Le R§ve" were purchased by others, who issued a
version of the story in a few newspapers under their
control, and subsequently offered the book-rights at a
somewhat high figure to Vizetelly. He — the proceedings
against him having now commenced — declined them, with-
out troubling even to look at the book ; and this was very
unfortunate, for whatever may have been Zola's purpose in
writing " Le K§ve," it was a work to make even Pecksniffs
reflect that this much-abused French author might not
really be so pornographically inclined as they imagined.
In any case, if the translation of "Le KSve," instead of
running merely through sundry provincial newspapers, had
appeared in volume form in London during the agitation
raised by the "Yigilants," it might well have proved a
useful auxiliary to the defence.

If it were a mistake to regard * Le E§ve " as the outcome
of any transformation of Zola's literary views, there occurred
about this time a change in his personal appearance of the
reality of which there could be no doubt. One evening, in
the winter of 1887-1888, when he was at the Th^tre Libre,1

1 His play " Madeleine " (originally called " La Madeleine ") which, he
had vainly offered to the Gymnase and Vaudeville theatres in 1866, and

302 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEB

he found, while walking down a passage, that his corpulence,
which after steadily increasing for several years had now
become extreme, made it difficult for him to get past Eaf-
faelli, the artist, who happened to be standing there. " It 's
a horrid nuisance to have such a corporation," said Zola,
apologising to Kaffaelli, whom he had involuntarily squeezed.
** But it 's easily got rid of," the other answered. " If you
wish to reduce your figure, you will merely have to cease
drinking while you eat." And forthwith he gave some par-
ticulars concerning a form of treatment,1 which he himself
had followed, for ridding oneself of obesity. On the follow-
ing morning Zola told his wife of it, but she laughed at him,
declaring there was no sense in such a story. Besides, she
said, he would never be able to abstain from drinking while he
ate. Zola contended the contrary, and at last both husband
«nd wife became impatient, and without exactly quarrelling,
had, «u» the saying goes, "a few words together." But at
last the morning rol and coffee, to which the first breakfast
is usually limited in Paris, was served, and Zola thereupon
took up his roll and began to eat. As for the coffee, in
spite of all his wife's expostulations, he would not touch it ;
and for three months he persevered with this new treatment,
drinking very sparingly and never at meals. Moreover, after
a week or two he eschewed bread altogether. One Sunday
in March (1888) when he arrived at M. Charpentier's house
to dine there, Goncourt, who was present, could scarcely
recognise him. He had lost over thirty pounds in weight,

which he had afterwards turned into a novel, "Madeleine Ferat" (see antet
pp. 99 and 107) was produced with indifferent success at the Theatre Libre
in 1889 — first performance, May 2.

1 The writer believes it is called the Schveninger cure.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 303

and Ms face, so round and flabby of recent years, once more
recalled the portrait which Manet had painted of him in, his
early manhood. After marvelling at this great change Gon-
court lost sight of Zola for another eight months or so, and
when he met him again in November he did not recognise
him at all Zola no longer resembled even the Manet por-
trait ; he was quite emaciated, his cheekbones projected, and
under his hair, which he now wore rather long and brushed
back, his forehead showed forth like a lofty tower. The
same energy and determination which he brought to bear in
his literary undertakings had enabled him to effect this great
change. He was then about eight and forty, and although,
in later years, he broadened and put on additional fiesh, he
never again became obese. After a time he allowed himself
a draught of water at his meals, but for the remainder of his
life he ate very little bread.

It was in 1888 (April 21) that " Germinal," the play based
on his novel, was at last produced at the Th^tre du Ch§,telet
in Paris. There was then a lull in the political unrest of
France ; nevertheless the Censorship had insisted on multi-
tudinous alterations in the piece, for fear lest "revolutionary
passions " should be aroused. To all the changes and sup-
pressions suggested by timorous politicians one may largely
attribute the failure of the play. The expenses were one
hundred and twenty pounds l a night, and at the fifth per-
formance the receipts had fallen to one hundred and twelve
pounds. Thus a change of programme soon became im-
perative. Zola naturally was vexed. "It is largely the
fault of the newspapers," said he to Edmond de Goncourt;
« they din into their readers' ears that only amusing plays

i About $600.

304 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

are worth seeing. But the misfortune is that on account
of this piece I have had to put my novel *Le K$ve* on
one side and have thus lost time."

''La B6ve* appeared in volume form in the autumn of
1888,1 and subsequently, in conjunction with M. Louis
Gallet, Zola drew from his story a libretto for his friend
M. Alfred Bruneau, the composer, from whom the much-
discussed opera " Le K$ve " came three years later.2 Mean-
time Zola had written his novel, "La Bdte Humaine,"
which was suggested in part, undoubtedly, by "Jack the
Ripper" and the theory of "homicidal mania/* and in part
by the mysterious death of a certain French prefect, named
Barreme, who had been found assassinated in a railway
carriage, We know that Zola had contemplated a book on
the railway world for several years, but had been at a loss
how to utilize such a subject in fiction. The Barr&me affair
extricated him from his difficulty, and was clearly indicated
as one of Ms sources of inspiration in the " puff preliminary "
which ** La Vie Populaire w printed before beginning to pub-
lish the story in November, 1889 : " The principal episode
of * La Bfite Humaine/ " said this announcement, " is a mur-
der in a railway train; and there are so many points of
similarity between the terrible scene depicted by Zola and
the mysterious death of Prefect Barreme, that one may well
inquire if the novelist, with an intuition superior to that

1 *'IiC KSre," Paris, Charpentier, 1893, 18mo, 310 pages. Some copies
on Dutch, India, and Japanese papers. Eighty-eighth, thousand in 1893 ; one
hundred and sixteenth thousand in 1903. Illustrated edition : Flammarion,
1888, 4to ; illustrations "by Carlos Schwob and Me*tiyet ; one hundred and
fifty copies on Dutch paper. Was sold in parts at 10 centimes. Jeanniot
had illustrated the story in **La Revue Illustre'e," which paid Zola one
thousand pounds for the serial rights.

3 First performed at the Ope*ra Comique, June 18, 1891.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 305

of the police, has not supplied the most probable explanation
of that dark affair.**

In a letter addressed to M. Charpentier in August, 1889,
while he was writing '* La B&te Humaine," at M&ian, Zola
said:

** I am working on my novel passionately and shall certainly
have finished it by December 1. ... I hope to take Fasquelle l
the first seven chapters on September 15, in order that they may
bo immediately set in type. ... I have a desperate desire to
finish my Eougon-Macquart series as soon as possible. I should
like to be rid of it in January, '92. This may be managed, but I
shall have to work very hard, I am fortunately in a good condi-
tion for work, I enjoy the most perfect health, and feel again
as I did when I was twenty.3 . . . "We shall return to Paris on
September 10, and settle quietly in our new quarters.8 That
will take us quite six weeks, and we should like to be settled
before the cold weather comes. There is a great deal to be done,
but wo shall do it leisurely, even if we have to postpone furnish-
ing the place completely until later. In December we shall
return to Me*dan to kill the pig, and, if it suits you, you shall
come with us.* The weather here is horrible. ... I hope you
will have some sunshine as you have gone yonder [to the Riviera]
in search of it. ... Ah ! my friend if I were only thirty, you
should see what I would do ! I would stagger the world 1 "

It was in the spring of 1890 that * La B§te Humaine M
appeared in volume form; and to some readers it might
seem that Zola showed great boldness in coming forward

1 M. Eugene Fasquelle had now acquired an interest in M. Gharpentier's
publishing business, which he ultimately purchased.

2 This was the result of having rid himself of his obesity.

8 The allusion is to the house in the Hue do Bruxelles (21 &&), which
Zola made his Paris home until his death.

* In his later years Zola kept Christmas and Few Year's Day at M6dan,
and then usually had a house-party there.

306 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEB

as a candidate for the French Academy at the very time
of issuing such a work,1 one of his most audacious. That
however, would be in some degree an error, as we propose
to Bhow.

A great deal has heen written on the subject of the
Academy and the failure of eminent men to secure admis-
sion to its ranks. Various considerations have influenced
it at different times, but it has generally shown a marked
dislike for innovators, men of independent character, and
pushing proclivities. To have presented oneself for election,
even repeatedly, and to have failed to find acceptance, can
be counted no dishonour. Victor Hugo came forward four
times in succession, but only on the fourth did he secure
the necessary number of votes. In the old days, to quote
only a few instances, the doors of the Academy were shut
to great men like Descartes and Moli^re, and even to
men of high standing, like La Eochefoucauld, the moralist.
In our days Balzac was several times an unsuccessful can-
didate ; while if Dumas Jils found favour with the Immortals
his father was always rigidly excluded from their midst.
And apropos of the authors of "Eug&nie Grandet" and
" Los Trois Mousquetaires," as of Zola also, one may point
out that it is only of recent years that novelists have
figured, in any number, among the Academicians. Even
at this time (1903) one can find merely four men who
are essentially novelists among the forty.

It has been mentioned above that the Academy has
shown no liking for innovators and men of independent and

1 M La B§te Humaine," Paris, Charpentiet, 1890, 18mo, 419 pages. Some
copies on Dutch, India, and Japanese papers. Eighty-eighth thousand in
1893 ; ninety-ninth thousand in 1903.

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 307

self-assertive character; now Zola was all that, and from
the outset, therefore, difficulties beset him. His views on
matters of religion were not at first the great obstacle which
they subsequently became. There had always been a Vol-
tairean element in the Academy ; and Littrd and Renan had
eventually secured election in spite of all the bitter hostility
of Monseigneur Bupanloup, the (t Eagle of Orleans.** True
it is that Dupanloup had failed to keep them out by the
very violence of his opposition, and since 1882 the Church
had been represented in the Academy by a prelate of a
different character, an unctuous man, Cardinal Perraud,
who did not bluster like Dupanloup but exerted his influ-
ence in a stealthy way, after the fashion usually ascribed
to the Jesuits. To him and his gradually acquired ascend-
ancy, Zola's final defeat in the struggle for Academical
honours was largely due. In that respect "Lourdes" and
"Rome" sealed his fate, as he himself freely acknow-
ledged to his friends. But when he first came forward as
a candidate he had written nothing irretrievable from the
Catholic standpoint. Though he had "The Conquest of
Plassans" and "Abb4 Mouret's Transgression'* behind him,
the former dealt only with the political and worldly in-
trigues of a priest, and the latter, if it questioned the vow
of perpetual chastity, at least ended with the repentance
and submission of the offender. Besides, "The Dream/'
with all its mysticism and religiosity, was of a nature to
propitiate rather than offend the clericals.

On the other hand, however, Zola's political and social
views gave great offence to conservatives generally, and in
the eighties the Dukes de Broglie and d'Audiffret-Pasquier
were very powerful in the Academy, They and those who

308 SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMKR

followed them regarded the author of "Les Eougon-Mac-
quart" as a revolutionist. His turbulence and self-asser-
tiveness alarmed them, and it is indeed quite likely that
if he had been elected he would have disturbed their qui-
etude in many ways and possibly have seized the lion's
share in the control of the Academy's labours. There was
also, of course, the question of the outspokenness of Nat-
uralism, which weighed considerably with one section of
the Academy;1 though it was never — as some English
writers have assumed it to be — the chief cause of Zola's
failure. Their error sprang from their ignorance of the
French character. If among those who voted against Zola
there were half a dozen Academicians who firmly objected
to his bluntness of expression, the majority was not dis-
posed to magnify molehills into mountains, particularly as
the Rabelaisian sense is common to many Frenchmen* But
there were a score of Academicians who hated what they
called the "revolutionary spirit" of Zola's writings, and
who feared, too, that this pushing, energetic man who had
been called "the Shark/' as he himself admitted with a
chuckle, might swallow them up if he became a member
of their body. At all events such is the explanation
given privately to the writer by some who supported
Zola's earlier candidatures, and they ought to know the
truth. Later, as already indicated, the religious question
arose, and the opposition to Zola then became the more
determined owing to the influence which Cardinal Perraud

1 It is notorious that Taine, who led a section of the Academicians, that
of the " university men," opposed Zola because he used vulgar and even slang
words in some of his writings. Taine, moreover, was in full sympathy with
the aristocratic element in the Academy with respect to its endeavours to make
the institution a kind of deadly-lively social cluh.

6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 309

and his first lieutenant, the Count de Jfun, exerted at every
opportunity.

Zola's earliest Academical patrons were his friends, Fran-
§ois Coppfe and Ludovie Hal^vy. Dumas fl& likewise
supported him, as mentioned in a previous chapter. So
did Jules Claretie, to the very end. Over a term of years
he presented himself nearly a score of times, and on each
occasion the votes cast for him dwindled, until at last
only Claretie's was left. His other friends shrewdly re-
garded the struggle as hopeless. Some people have thought
that if Zola had lived a few years longer he might have
proved successful, hut the writer does not share that view.
For the last thirty years — to go back no farther — the
Academy has been essentially conservative in its political
and social views. To preserve a kind of reputation for
fairness it has elected, now and again, a man of more or
less advanced opinions; but the majority has always re-
mained much the same, the " liberal " members never being
more than ten or twelve in number. On consulting the
list for 1903 one can only find nine who by some possi-
bility might have combined together to vote for a man
like Zola. On the other hand, it is not unlikely that time
will bring certain revenges. Comparatively few years ago
the Academy, which had repeatedly closed its doors to the
author of "La Com^die Humaine," selected the "Eulogy
of Honor6 de Balzac " as the subject of its " Prize for
Eloquence " ; and at some future date the " Eulogy of fimile
Zola " may be similarly chosen.

Zola was in nowise cast down when, at his first at-
tempt to gain admittance (1890), M. Charles de Freycinet,
a clever man, who did some good work during the war of

310 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

1870, but who afterwards degenerated into one of the hack
politicians of the Third Eepublic, was chosen in preference
to himself.1 He had anticipated it, but he was resolved
to offer himself for election at each fresh opportunity. " I
am. making history, literary history/1 he would say after
one and another rebuff. "So much the worse for the
Academy! Our grandnephews will learn that it refused
me admittance twenty or thirty times in succession*"

After " La BSte Humaine " in the summer of 1890, Zola
turned to "L* Argent/' a tale of the Paris financial world,
inspired chiefly by the crash of the Union G^ndrale Bank
some years before. Of all the subjects he had hitherto
approached he found this the most difficult to treat. He
had no financiers among his friends, he had never dabbled
in Bourse gambling, and was at a loss for information re-
specting much of the inner working of what the French call
la "kawte bangm. However, while frequenting the Bourse
almost daily for a whole month, he obtained enlightenment
from some gentlemen of the stock-broking world, to whom
he was introduced. He also studied the detailed reports of
the great swindles of previous years, going back as far as
the time of the notorious Mir£s, which was, of course, le-
gitimate, the period of his story being that of the Second
Empire. One may add that in writing his book he did
not spare some of the Jew financiers of Paris. " I/ Argent "
appeared serially in the " Gil Bias," which paid twelve hun-
dred pounds for the privilege, and was issued as a volume
in 1891.2 Goncourt mentions that while Zola was writing

1 At subsequent elections lie was defeated by Pierre Loti, Henri de Bor-
nier, Thureau-Dangin, Ferdinand Branetiere, etc.

2 UL* Argent," Charpentier, 1891, 18mo, 451 pages. Some copies on
Dutch, India, and Japanese papers ; eighty-third thousand in 1893; eighty-
ninth thousand in 1903.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 311

the work he again expressed his anxiety to finish his series.
There were to be only two more volumes, one on the Franco-
German war of 1870, and the other, in which he then took
most interest, a general summing-up of his ** family history >f
by a scientific man, Dr. Pascal Eougon, whom he thought
of marrying to some retrograde, bigoted woman who would
destroy successively everything he wrote. And Zola sighed
that he wished he could obtain permission to inspect the
papers of Claude Bernard, on whose published writings he
had reared, as will be remembered, Ms theory of le roman
experimental. As for his projected " war " book, he did not
think he could make much of a novel of it His idea at
that moment was to show some character " promenading**
through the siege of Paris and the Commune.1

When, however, he took the subject in hand — spending
the greater part of 1891 in collecting and classifying mate-
rials 2 — his views changed, and he decided rightly to make
the battle of Sedan the keystone of the work. The expres-
sion "la d£b&cle" occurs already in Alexis's "Notes d'un
Ami," published in 1882, but at a later stage Zola thought
of calling his book " La Guerre " (" War *)„ It is just possi-
ble that this was because a couple of French novels bearing
the title of "La Debacle" were in existence already.3
However, French authors are much less punctilious than

1 "Journal des Goncourt,1' Vol. VIII, p. 141.

2 Towards the close of the summer he allowed himself a holiday and repaired
to the Pyrenees with his wife. It was then (September) that he first visited
Lourdes and was struck by the sight of the pilgrimages. Ifc immediately
occurred to him that they would supply a good subject for a book, and to study
them more closely he returned to Lourdes in the summer of 1892.

* The writer must admit that he has seen neither, but he has found one
catalogued under the names of M. Claretie, the other under that of M. Ca-
mille Etievant. Both had appeared before 1885. It is of course possible that
Zola had never heard of them.

312 £MILE ZOLA, HOVELIST AND REFORMER

English ones with respect to titles, and it would be easy to
mention several instances in which the same has been used
— by different writers — three or four times over. In any
case, Zola reverted to the title of "La D£b£cle" as being
the most appropriate to his series, signifying as it did the
" smash-up w of that imperial regime whose society he had
been describing so long ; and though charges of plagiarism
were so often brought against him, it would not appear that
any arose on this occasion.

Zola had found " L* Argent " a difficult subject, and now
the preparation of " La D^bUcle " proved a herculean task
for him. He had never witnessed an engagement in the
field ; military matters were almost as foreign to him as fi-
nancial ones. He had dealt with them in a few short stories
only, such as " Le Capitaine Burle " and " Les Quatre Jour-
n4es de Jean Gourdon." But he now visited all the battle-
fields which were to figure in his narrative, he followed the
line of march of the Seventh Army Corps, whose suffer-
ings he intended to describe, he studied everything that had
been printed and published in France on his subject, and he
was fortunate enough to secure a large number of letters
and manuscripts in which eye-witnesses recounted one and
another episode of the battle of Sedan. Some of those com-
munications emanated from " privates," who set down their
own curious personal experiences and often naive impres-
sions ; and for Zola's purpose these were even more valuable
than the reports of generals and other officers. What he
made of his subject the world knows ; of all the books he
ever wrote " La Dftftele " has circulated the most widely.

One notable effect of that great epic on war was to deter-
mine some revulsion of feeling in England with respect to

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 313

the novelist Directly the liquidation of Vizetelly & Co/a

business had been decided on, Ernest Vizetelly hail found
his occupation gone, for there were no new books to be in-
itiated or seen through the press, and even most of those
already in hand were abandoned, at least for the time.
Vizetelly was therefore reduced to very great straits. At a
moment's notice, so to say, he had to seek a living elsewhere.
He was a journalist by profession, but for two or three
years he had virtually severed his connection with news-
papers. Moreover, his press work had almost invariably
been that of a foreign correspondent, and his experience of
such duties, even with some knowledge of European lan-
guages and politics thrown in, did not give him much
chance of securing work in London. Again, one editor
under whom he had written for eleven years had retired ;
another was dead. He knocked at a few editorial doors and
encountered an unpromising reception. There was a de-
cided prejudice against anybody bearing his name. After
the release of his father from Holloway he helped him in a
few little ventures, but was unable to secure any regular re-
munerative work. Many young men with only themselves
to think of often find it hard to begin life ; it is harder still
to begin it afresh when one is seven and thirty and has
given hostages to fortune. Vizetelly was married, had two
children, and was expecting the advent of another child.
Robert Buchanan, whom he often saw in connection with his
father's troubles, inquired about his own private circum-
stances, and on learning the position generously helped him.
" As you know," said Buchanan, " there are certain people
who taunt me in the papers because I draw a Civil List
pension and yet make a considerable income by my pen.

314 tMJLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Well, the truth is, Vketelly, that the pension often proves
very useful It will help me to assist you, as it has helped
me to assist a good many others/'

When the haby was born and Vketelly's wife was on foot
again, " they took their courage in both hands," as the French
say, and moved to a neighbourhood where living was cheap.
And though their street was * slummy," and from their front
windows ragged urchins were constantly to be seen fetching
penn'orths of porter in pewter cans, and often sampling
the liquor on their way home, there lay behind the little
house they rented a large cabbage field, beyond which were
the grounds of Carnwath House and all the trees of Hurl*
ingham. Vizetelly chose for his work a first-floor room,
whence one looked out on the cabbage patch and the trees,
and tried to devise some means of earning a living. For a
while the sale of his books and the pawnshop helped him,
and he gradually contrived to dispose of a few articles to
newspapers. But the one idea that haunted him was to
bring Zola to the front again in England. It was neither
friendship for Zola nor an overpowering admiration for his
writings that inspired that idea. Vizetelly thought chiefly
of the ruin of his family and the odium cast on it by all
that had happened. At the same time he knew that Zola
as well as his father had been cruelly maligned by the
Pecksniffs and those who had abetted them.

Unfortunately nothing could be done at once. The next
book that Zola wrote (after "Le K§ve") was "La B§te
Humaine," and such was the state of public opinion that it
seemed impossible to produce even a bowdlerised version of
that work in England. Vizetelly felt — as he had felt with
respect to the earlier translations — that one must proceed

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEE 315

cautiously, that the ground must be well prepared in
advance if the doctrine of outspokenness were ever to tri-
umph. His father had acted too audaciously, too precipi-
tately, with little or no diplomacy. And diplomacy was
needed. It was useless to run against a wall of Cootes
and Clarkes, an outflanking movement must be tried.

After "La B§te Surname" came "L'Argent," and that
book and its subject did not seem attractive enough to pave
the way for a genuine revival of Zola in England. So
Vizetelly again had to wait. It was a dreary time, but his
wife was as plucky a woman as lived, and between them
they managed to keep the wolf from the door. At last, in
the summer of 1891, on hearing that Zola had begun a
novel on the Franco-German war, it occurred to Vizetelly
that the opportunity for which he had been waiting since
1889 might be at hand. There were great possibilities in
the subject chosen by Zola, and it was one which had much
attraction for Vizetelly, who with boyish ambition had tried
what he could do with his pen and his pencil amid the
fierce struggle which was now to be Zola's theme.

Communications ensued between them, but though the
novelist speedily assented to the suggestions made to him,
Vizetelly had much difficulty in finding an English news-
paper willing to publish a translation of " La D£b&cle " while
the original was appearing in " La Vie Populaire." " Le
Figaro," one may mention, had offered Zola a very large
sum for the privilege of serialising that work ; but he had
declined the proposal, saying that it would be absurd to
publish his narrative of the battle of Sedan, some two
hundred pages long, in short daily "snippets." He preferred
to take the twelve hundred pounds offered him by "La

316 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOKMER

Vie Populaire," which appeared weekly, and was able to
allot several pages of each number to his work.

Vizetelly naturally desired to issue his translation in an
English journal, but editors feared apparently that they
might soil their immaculate hands if they had anything to
do with the loathsome Zola. Thus there were repulses upon
every side, until Mr. Kibblewhite, of the " Weekly Times and
Echo,'* rising above the general prejudice, accepted the pro-
posals made to him. The translation as inserted in the
** Weekly Times ' ' was anonymous, for Vizetelly was too
shrewd to thrust himself forward after all that had happened,
However, he now tried to find a firm willing to publish
" The Downfall/1 as the translation was called, in a volume ;
and again, in this respect also, he encountered several rebuffs.
Two publishers to whom proofs were sent returned the
parcels unopened ; others, who were visited, curtly declined
to negotiate; one made a low offer, so low as to give the
author little and the translator virtually nothing. Thus the
book went begging. Vizetelly became disheartened, and his
wife eventually suggested that he should cease his efforts,
since they only consumed time in which he might have
earned a little money. He felt she was right, but as a last
attempt he sent a few of his proofs, with a letter, to Messrs.
Chatto and Windus. This was a kind of forlorn hope.
Judging by the firm's catalogue, there was apparently little
prospect that it would accept anything by Zola. But Mr.
Andrew Chatto and his partner, Mr. Percy Spalding, set
prejudices aside and took the trouble to look at what was
submitted to them. They agreed to publish the book, and
were recompensed for their enterprise by its very great
success. Such, then, was the origin of a connection which,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 317

as some readers may know, resulted In Messrs. Cliatto pub-
lishing nearly all the Zola translations and "revisions"
attempted by Ernest Vize telly.

In the case of a new work by a foreign author of established
reputation, it is usually advisable that the translation should
appear at the same time as the original ; but, owing to cir-
cumstances, the success of "The Downfall" was helped
materially by the earlier issue of the French volume.
Directly the latter appeared in Paris1 Vizetelly recom-
mended it to a few former war correspondents ; and as the
praise which Archibald Forbes bestowed upon Zola's work
in a literary journal exercised some influence, a dozen lauda-
tory articles soon found their way into the newspapers.

Moreover " La D6Mcle " created an extraordinary sensation
in France, Germany, and other parts of Europe. The foreign
correspondents of the English press repeatedly had occasion
to refer to it, thus virtually compelling attention to the book.
In Paris Zola's enemies assailed him fiercely. They wanted
to know what he himself had done during the Franco-
German war. The Imperialists accused him of having
slandered Napoleon III. The more zealous patriots declared
it was disgraceful to have written such a book, which, said
they, was a mere speculation on the country's misfortunes.
And some took particular offence at the title of " La D£b&cle."

* "LaDe"b£cle," Paris, Charpentier and Fasquelle, 1892, ISrao, 620 pages ;
one hundred and seventy-sixth thousand in 1893 ; two hundred and seventh,
thousand in 1903. Illustrated edition: Paris, Flammarion, n. d., 4to, 527
pages ; illustrations by Jeanniot ; ninety copies on India, Japanese, and Dutch
papers. The Bavarian Captain Tanera attacked the book in " Le Figaro,"
September 19, 1892, and his communication was reprinted by Lemerre,
8 pages, 8vo. Zola's answer to him, ** Retour de Voyage," was also published
by Lemerre, 1892, 18mo, 21 pages j forty copies printed, all numbered, those
bearing odd numbers being on Dutch paper.

318 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Why indeed had not the author chosen another? Zola,
mildly astonished by this question, made answer that it was
not he hut the Emperor and his generals who had lost the
battle of Sedan, and that he would infinitely have preferred
to write a very different hook if the military men had only
allowed him to do so.

The work had been published as a volume in June (1892).
and in August Zola, accompanied by his wife, betook himself,
to Lourdes to witness the more important pilgrimages there,
a glimpse of which he had obtained the previous autumn.
From Lourdes he made his way to Italy, where he now set
foot for the first time* On this occasion he would seem to
have gone no further than Genoa, where he remained a
short time, and where some attention was shown him.
Early in October he arrived at Monte Carlo on his way
home and wrote to Yizetelly, saying, " I am about to return
to Paris to begin my next book, * Dr. Pascal/ It will be a
story of private life and passion in the style of ' Une Page
d'Amour' and <La Joie de Vivre.' Its chief interest will
lie in its being the last volume of the * Rougon-Macqnart '
series. In France it will hardly appear serially before
February next, but you may already try to place an English
translation of it It will not offend the modesty of your
fellow-countrymen."

The translation was promptly offered to the "Weekly
Times " and accepted by it, the book rights being reserved.
Under date November 4, Zola confirmed this arrangement,
and writing again, ten days later, he said : " I can under-
take to say that the story will contain nothing to offend
the prudery of your compatriots, and, besides, I give you
full authority to modify any passages which may seem to

IMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 319

you to be inquittants" As some may be aware, there were
certain passages of that nature ; and Yizetelly, bent on pro-
ceeding cautiously and diplomatically, deleted them,

Zola naturally took great pleasure in writing this book
for, as he remarked to his friend, Mr. Sherard, it gave him
an opportunity to pass his entire series in review and
defend himself against many of the accusations brought
against him*

" It is not a book to stir the passions of the multitude," he
said ; " it is a scientific work, the logical outcome and conclusion
of all my previous volumes ; and at the same time it is my speech
for the defence before the court of public opinion. ... It will be
a sermon on atavism and will set forth my theory that when
men know how to master its influence they will be masters of
their own destinies. And the conclusion will be the philosophical
one which I have sought ever since I first took pen in hand to
write the series ; that we ought to have faith in life and confidence
in Nature. * . . Yes, that despite all that is cruel and ugly and
incomprehensible in Nature, despite all the suffering and in-
justice of life, all that is bad and seems irremediable in the
world, we ought to preserve confidence in Nature, and stake
our hopes on effort and work. Further, that, though we may
not see it, we are surely pushing forward towards a certain end
and object ; that there is a field of hope in Nature, and that good
will come out of all that is bad, that justice will emerge from the
slough of injustice, that a day of beauty will dawn after a night
of hideous darkness, and that the result of all our efforts and our
suffering must surely be one that will reward the first and com-
pensate us for the other." l

Zola sold the first French serial rights in "Le Docteur
Pascal " to a periodical called " La Rdvue hebdomadaire," 2

1 Abbreviated from Sherard, I, c,, p. 251 et seq.
3 It paid him £1,400 = about $7,000.

320 fiSHLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFGEMER

In which the story appeared from March till June, 1893.
With the volume, issued a few weeks later,1 a new genea-
logical tree of the Eougon-Macquart family was given,
this including the names of the additional members created
by Zola's fancy since his first inception of the series.

To celebrate its completion his publishers gave a dejeuner
champltre at the Chalet restaurant on the larger of the
Grand Lac islands in the Bois de Boulogne. A numerous
company of literary men and artists assembled there, but
the proceedings may have aroused some jealousy among a
few old friends, for men like Daudet and Goncourt were
absent. The former, who had long since renounced the
Academy and all its pomps, did not approve of Zola's
*' perpetual candidature " — he was, by the way, then offer-
ing himself for three fauteuih simultaneously — and thus
there was a coldness between them. Goncourt also was
opposed to the Academy, and meditated the establishment
of a rival one of his own " for novelists only." So in this
case again there was some coldness, particularly as Zola
felt that certain references to himself in the earlier volumes
of the "Journal des Goncourt," then lately issued, were
not quite such as one might have expected from a bosom
friend. We know, however, by later entries in the " Jour-
nal," that Zola and Goncourt continued to meet virtually
until the latter's death. True it is that Goncourt at one
time meant to appoint Zola to the chief position in his
so-called "Academy," and that he afterwards renounced
that intention. But, contrary to what some writers have

1 "Le Doeteur Pascal," Paris, Charpentier and Fasquelle, 1893, 18rao,
390 pages ; some copies on special papers ; eighty-eighth thousand in 1893,
soon after publication ; ninety-fourth thousand in 1903.

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Facsimile letter fron Zola to Vizetelly

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMEB 321

asserted, Zola was by no means disappointed at being
left out of it. As a matter of fact, he had deliberately
rendered himself ineligible by seeking admittance to the
real Academy; and, besides, from the outset he had
put very little faith in Goncourfs scheme. However, his
friendship with Goncourt and Daudet, whatever their dif-
ferences, subsisted till the last. Of the part which he took
when Daudet died some mention will be made hereafter.

At the lunch at the Chalet des lies the novelist's health
was proposed by his old friend and publisher, M. Char-
pentier, and after the toast had been acknowledged, M.
Catulle Mendfes, who, as will be remembered, had gallantly
assisted Zola when the columns of "La Cloche " and "Le
Bien Public" were closed to "La Cur<5e" and "L'Assom-
inoir," spoke of the old quarrels between the Naturalists
and the Parnassians, to which, latter sect he, Mend&s, had
belonged. And, said he, though he still looked upon
poetry as a much superior art to prose, he was anxious
to declare publicly that he regarded Zola as one of the
great literary glories of France. This was very pretty ;
and the novelist, not to be left behind in. a matter of com-
pliments, responded by referring to Mend&s as a perfect
artist and a good friend. Finally he proposed a toast to
work, his old hobby, as he called it, the only one in
which true happiness could be found. For some inscrut-
able reason General lung — whose researches into the
Iron Mask mystery may be remembered, and who happened
to be among the guests on this occasion — thought the
moment appropriate to re-echo a remark which had run
through the newspapers, and to which one has already
referred. "Monsieur Zola," said he, "you have written

322 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

* The Smash-up ' (' La D$b&cle '), let us hope that you will
soon write * Victory/ " " Ah, general !" replied Zola, rais-
ing his forefinger, " that is your business." And thereupon
he sat down.

The value of books is not to be estimated by their
length or even by their popularity. Yet it may not be
inappropriate to point out that the Rougon-Macquart se-
ries, which Zola had now completed, was really a colossal
performance. Besides a large variety of other work, the
novelist had written the twenty volumes of that series in
about five and twenty years, introducing, as he proceeded,
no fewer than twelve hundred characters to his readers.
The twenty volumes represented nine thousand pages of
print, each of three and thirty lines, and, assuming an
average of nine words per line and making allowance for
€€ blanks/' — by no means numerous in Zola's works, — one
may say that they contained quite two million five hun-
dred thousand words. Passing to another matter, one finds
that at the time of the appearance of "Le Docteur Pascal"
there had been sold over half a million copies of the ordi-
nary Charpentier edition of the series. The popular illus-
trated editions of several of the stories, first sold in what
one may call "penny parts," had also circulated very widely,
at least to the extent of a quarter of a million copies;
and further there had been some editions de luxe, copies
on special papers, and so forth. Moreover, there were five
novels written before the Rougon-Macquart series was
begun, with four volumes of short stories and seven vol-
umes of essays and other papers, issued at various times;
and one may therefore assume that between eight and
nine hundred thousand copies of Zola's books had been

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 323

sold at the period we now deal with. And of course
thousands and thousands of readers had been reached by
serial publication. Of the circulation of the many trans-
lations it is impossible to give even an idea, but some of
the English and American volumes had sold by tens of
thousands, and there were versions of many of Zola's writ-
ings in German, Italian, Kussian, Dutch, Hungarian, and
other languages. But books, as we know, by no means
represented the whole of Zola's work ; there were also many
scores, if not hundreds, of ephemeral uncollected newspaper
articles to be added to them, as well as several plays, so
that his output stood at quite five million words. It was
evident then that he practised what he preached, — that
gospel of work, which others, such as Tolstoi, the prophet of
resignation, occasionally derided but which he himself found
all-sustaining.

He took it as a part of his text when speaking at a
gathering of the Paris Students' Association, over which
he presided that year, 1893,1 for though the Academy still
refused him admittance, some recognition of his labours
was coming from other quarters. On the occasion of the
National F@te, following the completion of his great series,
he was raised from the rank of chevalier to that of officer
of the Legion of Honour ; and for some years in succession,
a very rare occurrence, he was chosen as President de la
Soci£t4 des Gens de Lettres. It was this circumstance
that caused the English Institute of Journalists to invite

1 A translation of the address in question (made by the present writer) ap-
peared in "The New Keview," No. 50, July, 1893, under the title of "Life
and Labour." Besides expounding the gospel of work, Zola answered the
writers of Brunetiere's coterie who had started the nonsensical cry of the
" bankruptcy of Science."

324 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

him and other representative French writers to attend one
of its congresses in London. Zola's connection with. Ernest
Vizetelly had now become a close one. A translation of
wLe Docteur Pascal * had followed that of "La Debacle,"
and arrangements had been made for an English version
of a previous work, "L'Argent," Zola indorsing all Vke-
telly's proposals in a letter in which he said: "My dear
confrere, I leave translation matters entirely to you, and
it is sufficient you should tell me that an arrangement is
good for me to accept it I know you to be devoted to
my interests, and you are well placed to decide every-
thing,"1 Under these circumstances, early in August
1893, soon after receiving the invitation of the Institute
of Jotirnalists, Zola communicated with Vizetelly and asked
him for certain information. "I should like to know," he
wrote, "what will be the importance of this congress, and
whether it will offer much interest You know my posi-
tion in London; my work is still very much questioned
there, almost denied. It certainly seems to me that my
presence, and the words I might speak, might efface much
of the misunderstanding, and that it would be politic to
accept, in order to influence opinion. But what is your
view? Eeply to me at once at M&lan."

Vizetelly, in his reply, reviewed the situation such as it
had become since the " The Downfall " which had conduced
to a movement in Zola's favour. The English critics, he
said, still made all sorts of reserves, asserting, for instance,
that a new Zola had come into being and one of them even

1 The writer holds several letters written to him by Zola at various times,
expressing similar reliance on his judgment To print them all would be to
exaggerate their importance, The above will suffice as a specimen..

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEB 325

claiming that there were three Zolas, the author of "La
Terre," the author of « Le B&ve," and the author of " La D6-
Mcle " ; for they were still so far from the truth, so unable
to grasp the significance of the Bougon-Macquart series as a
whole, that they could only explain the latter works by pic-
turing some wonderful change in the novelist. Had they
looked into the matter more closely they would have found
" Le BSve," with all its mysticism and poetry, followed by
one of Zola's most naturalist volumes, " La B§te Humaine,"
which alone, by reason of its place in the series, demonstrated
the fallacy of their assumption. But as Vizetelly pointed
out, they, and English people generally, had to be taken as
they were. The position had certainly improved, and Zola's
presence in London might well make it better still, for in
conversation as well as in his speeches he might be able to
clear up many misunderstandings. At the same time it was
proper to bear in mind that the Institute of Journalists had
members in all parts of the country, and Vizetelly did not
know how far the provincial districts might share the views
of the London district, whence the invitation had emanated.
Personally he was very much in favour of Zola accepting it,
but he would make some inquiries before anything further
was done. Zola himself thought that course advisable, for
he at once replied : " If I did not immediately answer the
invitation it was precisely because I felt somewhat distrust-
ful, though it is difficult to believe that they have invited me
with the intention of receiving me badly. I do not wish
the English press to promise it will sing my praises, but I
should like to be quite certain it will be polite while I am
its guest. Please make the inquiries you propose, and tell
me frankly what you think of the situation." And he added

326 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

in a postscript : " I forgot to tell you that the invitation is
addressed to M. JSmile Zola, President de la Soci6t£ des
Gens de Lettres."

That postscript was all important, for it explained the
character of the invitation. Various amenities had passed
"between the French Society and the Institute of Journa-
lists already, and now the Institute, being about to hold a
conference in London, had courteously invited the officials
of various foreign organisations. It so happened that Zola
was one of the officials in question. If some other man had
held his position in the Soci£t£ des Gens de Lettres in 1893
that other man would certainly have been invited, and Zola
in all likelihood would not have been asked at all. But the
circumstances were not fully understood at the time, and
some badly informed controversialists, in their anger at
finding the hateful Zola a guest of an English newspaper
organisation, subsequently heaped undeserved abuse on the
Institute of Journalists, Vizetelly, however, made various
inquiries of the Institute's officials, and having satisfied
himself that Zola would have no reason to complain of his
reception, he again wrote suggesting that the invitation
should be accepted. On August 18 Zola, who meantime had
also consulted M. George Petilleau, the official delegate of
the Soci^t^ des Gens de Lettres in England,1 responded ;

*' I have just accepted, officially, the invitation of the English
journalists, so it is quite decided that I shall attend their congress,
It would be very kind of you to keep me informed of any incidents
that may arise, and I also rely on you to let me know as soon as
possible what toast I shall have to acknowledge [at the Institute's

1 Mr. Petilleau has also "been for many years President of the National So-
ciety of French Masters in England. He is French professor at Charterhouse.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 327

dinner], I understand also that I shall be asked to speak on the
question of anonymity in journalism. That is a big question in
England, is it not 1 It would be very kind of you to tell me what
you think of it, and what the majority of English journalists think.
I want to know the ground beforehand."

Then on August 22 he wrote :

My dear Confrere, — I am preparing the few pages I wish to read
on anonymity in English journalism, and I should like to have
what information you can give me. I forgot to insist on one
point : Is literary and artistic criticism anonymous, like other
things, in England? Do your critics, I mean those who judge
books and works of art, also refrain from signing their articles 1
Give me a little information on that point. Tell me clearly what
is the position of criticism on your side (ckez wus), if it numbers
any remarkable men, if they are known, and if people become im-
passioned for or against them as in France. Again thanks, and
very cordially yours, E. Z.

Vizetelly replied by sending him a memorandum, running
to perhaps a thousand words, and Zola was further primed
with information by others, some London correspondents of
the French press, and also M. Petilleau, who took a prom-
inent part in the proceedings. Writing again to Vizetelly
on August 27, Zola said : " A thousand thanks for your ex-
cellent notes, they will enable me to write something inter-
esting." In the same letter he gave some information
respecting " Lourdes " which he was then preparing, and he
again referred to that work in a note dated August 30, when
he said : " I shall try every effort to make it one-fifth shorter
than ' La Debacle/ for such long novels are disastrous in
France." Those efforts, however, were hardly successful, for
when "Lourdes" was finished it proved to be only forty
pages shorter than the novel on the war.

328 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Though Yizetelly now had plenty of work before him
— for besides completing the edition of " The Heptameron "
on which he had been engaged in 1889, he was helping
his father with his reminiscences, — he was anxious to make
early arrangements with respect to " Lourdes " in the hope
of profiting by any reaction in Zola's favour which the1
forthcoming visit to London might promote. In that
respect, while he observed with pleasure that English
newspaper men seemed to be recovering from their former
aberration, he thought it hardly right to leave Zola entirely
in the hands of a profession, many of whose members,
only a few years previously, had covered him with unmiti-
gated abuse. In these circumstances he communicated
with Mr. afterwards Sir Walter Besant, whom he knew to
be well informed respecting Zola and his works,1 and who
had also shown great personal kindness at the time of the
Yizetelly prosecution. Besant took the hint immediately,
but was almost at a loss what to suggest, for in all proba-
bility in the latter part of September, when Zola would
arrive in London, few English authors of note would be
there. However, he saw Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, chairman
of the Authors' Club, and Mr. Crawfurd, a man of broad
views like Besant himself, took up the matter with alacrity.
During the interval which ensued, Mr. Besant wrote several
times to Ernest Yizetelly, going so far, on one occasion, as
to say, " A dinner will be given at the club to M. Zola and
yourself on any day to be named — as quickly as possible
— by yourself." But Yizetelly, while accepting the in-

1 Sir Walter himself related that "when " L'Assomraoir " came into his
hands he sat up all night to read it, unable to put it down until he had
reached the last word.

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOKMEB 329

vitation on Zola's behalf, and also quite willing to attend
the dinner, felt that he must not attempt to take any
prominent part in the proceedings. If he had foreseen
that his father, who was still living in retirement near
Tilford, would be dead some three months later, he might
have adopted quite another course, in order to procure
some personal satisfaction for the poor old man who had
been pelted with mud, ruined, and sent to prison. But
he thought it premature to bring his father forward
at that juncture, and therefore he said nothing to Mm or
to anybody else on the subject. Thus it came to pass
that after Zola's visit, the inquiry, a Where was Vizetelly ? "
— started, the writer believes, by Mr. Joseph Hatton —
went the round of the newspapers ; but while some raised
it with the best of intentions, others repeated it with a
malicious sneer, a circumstance which seemed to indicate
that Yizetelly's son had really taken the wisest course.
When the Journalists' arrangements had been ascertained,
the Authors' Club dinner was fixed for September 28 ; and
Zola, writing to Ernest Vizetelly on the twelfth, to express
his approval, said: "Let me add, that I leave you full
liberty. Whether those gentlemen invite me as a novelist
or as President of the Soci£t£ des Gens de Lettres, I shall
in either case feel deeply touched and flattered. I am not
a formalist ; all genuine sympathy, in whatever respect, will
go to my heart."

It was on September 20 that the novelist arrived in
London1 in the company of a dozen French journalists, —
MM. Magnard, Scholl, Eobbe, Xau, Mille, and others. Ma-
dame Zola and a few other ladies were likewise of the party.

1 Vizetelly met Mm at Calais.

330 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOBMER

At Victoria station Sir Edward Lawson, now Lord Burn-
ham, read in French, an address of welcome, and Zola,
when — like others — he had briefly responded, drove to
the Savoy Hotel, where rooms had been engaged for him.
The paper on anonymity which he read a couple of days
afterwards to the journalists assembled in Lincoln's Inn
Hall was, on the whole, well received. He admitted that
the practice of signing political articles in France had
undermined the authority of the press there, and tended
to the destruction of parties ; but, at the same 'time, said
he, it had to be recognised that much of the inspiriting
ardour of the political battle sprang from that same prac-
tice. On the other hand, as it was the custom for English
political journalists to write anonymously, it might be
well if they continued to do so, in order to preserve the
power and authority of their press. But Zola pleaded
strongly for signed articles in the departments of literary
and dramatic criticism, pointing out, by the way, that such
articles were indeed beginning to appear in certain English
journals. One remark of his, to the effect that English
newspaper men were well paid, elicited a loud roar of
laughter, and there was considerable dissent when he
likened some journalists to mere writing-machines at the
beck and call of a superior. On that question some news-
papers afterwards pointed out that on two occasions when
there had been a change in the proprietorship of " The Pall
Mall Gazette " the editors and the bulk of their staff had
quitted the paper to uphold their opinions elsewhere. One
may add that later, during the Boer war, various editors
and others threw up their posts rather than write con-
trary to their convictions. One passage of Zola's address

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 331

certainly seemed to have the full approval of Ms audience.
It ran as follows : " To my thinking, when a writer does
not sign his work, and becomes a mere wheel in a great
machine, he ought to share the income earned by that
machine. Have you retiring pensions for your aged jour-
nalists ? After they have devoted their anonymous labour
to the common task, year after year, is the bread of their
old age assured to them ? If they signed their work, surely
they would find their reward elsewhere ; they would have
laboured for themselves. But when they have given their
all, even their fame, strict justice demands that they should
be treated like those old servants whose whole life has been
spent in the service of the same family."

The journalists present having derided the suggestion that
they were well paid, it seemed only natural that they should
approve the idea of old-age pensions. At that time, of course,
there already existed such organisations as the Newspaper
Press Fund; and since then various pensions have been
established by the Institute of Journalists ; yet one may well
wonder if there be even nowadays anything approaching
adequate provision for the old age of journalists, of whom
the great majority are able to save little or nothing of their
earnings. It was undoubtedly this side of the question that
most influenced Zola in his remarks on anonymity, which he
regarded as being entirely in the newspaper proprietor's
favour, for it enabled him, if he chose, to cast a writer adrift
with nothing of the position which he might have held in
public esteem as the result of his labours, if his articles had
been signed. Briefly, in journalism as in other matters, Zola
was on the side of the worker and against the capitalist.

No doubt when he was invited to London, purely and

332 iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

simply on account of the office he held, It was not foreseen
that his visit would develop as it did. But although he was
accompanied by several notahle men he speedily dwarfed
them all, becoming the centre of attraction at every gathering
of the Institute of Journalists. There was a great dinner
at the Crystal Palace, a reception at the Imperial Institute,
and another, which was given to the journalists by the Lord
Mayor, at the Guildhall. That historic building was then
thronged to overflowing, and it was strange indeed — remem-
bering all that had gone before — to see Zola and his wife
marching in a kind of state procession, preceded by the
City's trumpeters and followed by the Lord Mayor, the
President of the Institute and other dignitaries, while some
official who cleared the way called persistently : " Monsieur
Zola ! Madame Zola 1 " as though a couple of royalties were
approaching.

Other entertainments were given at this time. Some of
the theatres were thrown open to the guests of the Institute
of Journalists ; Sir Edward Lawson gave them a lunch at
Taplow, there was a cordial little reception at the Press Club ;
while the Athenaeum Club conferred honorary membership
on Zola for the period of his stay in London. That last dis-
tinction was the most unexpected of all, and assuredly the
Bishops belonging to the Athenaeum cannot have known of
it. At the Authors' Club dinner, which closed the round
of "semi-official" gatherings, there were some eighty men of
letters, with a sprinkling of publishers and others, present.
When Mr. Oswald Crawf urd had proposed Zola's health —
which he did in excellent French and very laudatory terms
— the novelist, no orator, as he had carefully stated at the
outset of his sojourn, read his reply, which may be given

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOBMER 333

here as a specimen of his few public utterances, for he did
not read or make more than a score of speeches in the whole
course of his career.

" Since I reached London," he said, " I have received so many
greetings and have so often been called upon to respond thereto,
that I am a little ashamed to speak again. I need not, however,
solicit your indulgent attention for any length of time. Indeed,
in all modesty, I ask your permission to be very brief on this occa-
sion* Nothing could have touched me more deeply than your very
flattering invitation. I know that eminent writers are here assem-
bled to extend to me the right hand of fellowship, and I feel that
it is no longer the journalist but the novelist that is being enter-
tained. (Applause.) Moreover, you have reminded me that in
Paris I am the president of the Societ^ des Gens de Lettres ; so
that in my person you honour all French literature. (Applause.)
I should wish, therefore, to allow my own personality to disappear,
and be nothing more than the delegate of my French brethren,
to whom I shall attribute by far the greater part of the very
cordial homage you have paid to me. I desire, indeed, gentlemen,
to insist upon the feeling of fitting modesty that I shall carry away
with me from all these functions. You have told me, Mr. Chair-
man, that, after conquering the world, I have come to conquer
England. Will you allow me to reply that I know what I ought
to think of my conquest 1 Amidst all the plaudits, I well under-
stand that the opinion of your critics has not changed in regard to
my works. Only, you have now seen their author, and have found
him less black than report painted him. (Laughter and applause. )
Then, too, you have reflected — 'Here is a man who has fought
hard and worked a great deal'; and belonging as you do to a
great nation of workers, you have honoured work in me. (Applause.)
Lastly, it has occurred to you that a man cannot have conquered
the world — according to the facetious expression of two of your
number — without being worthy of some praise. Works of a differ-
ent order in art to your own may have affronted you, but you

334 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

were too sensible to refrain from according them some recognition
as soon as you understood how much effort and sincerity they
embodied* I am leaving London, not, indeed, as one who has
triumphed, but as a man who is happy at leaving some sympathetic
feelings behind him. My heart overflows with gratitude for the
hospitality, so extensive and so refined, that you have accorded
me. Here I say good-bye, or rather au revoir (loud applause) ;
and I say it, through you, to your compatriots* I wish, through
you, to assure my brother authors, my fellow-novelists, that I shall
never forget the truly royal reception that a mere French writer
has received in this huge city of London, throbbing with life and
so worthy of inspiring masterpieces. And, gentlemen, as at the
close of every banquet it is right to propose a toast, I drink now
alike to the novelists of England and the novelists of France, to
the good-fellowship of all authors in one universal republic of
letters. (Loud applause.) n l

Ernest Vizetelly was present at the Authors* Club dinner,
and spent half an hour in the crush at the Guildhall, besides
hearing Zola read his paper on anonymity. But he abstained
from attending most of the other festivities. Every morn-
ing at an early hour he arrived at the Savoy Hotel to
assist the novelist with his correspondence, the hundreds of
applications for autographs and interviews, which poured in
upon him ; and after the first few days, — as soon as Zola
had a little leisure, — he took him to see one and another of
the sights of London. Mr. George Moore also escorted the
Zolas to Greenwich; Mr. Andrew Chatto gave them a
friendly luncheon; Mr. afterwards Sir Campbell Clarke
acted as their cicerone at the National Gallery, and Dr.
Garnett at the British Museum Library. There were also
some interesting visits to the French Hospital and the

1 From a draft of the French text.

6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 335

French Club under M. Petilleau's guidance, an excursion
with Vizetelly and a fellow-journalist to County Council
and Eowton lodging-houses, Rothschild almshouses, various
sweaters' dens, sundry Jewish homes in Whitechapel, and
Italian ones at Saffron Hill. On the whole, however, Zola
was not impressed by what he saw of London poverty ; he
declared it to be nothing in comparison with what might
be found in Paris. There was much want, no doubt, but it
struck him that the passer-by saw little of it. And to em-
phasise his meaning he reminded Vizetelly of the Parisian
ragpickers' "He des Singes" and the woeful Route de la
Rdvolte, which certainly has never had its parallel in.
modern London.

Westminster Abbey naturally interested him, though his
visit was a very perfunctory one, owing to the haste of the
usual verger with the sing-song voice. When one first entered
the abbey, however, some afternoon service was in progress,
and after standing and watching for a time, Zola whispered
to Vizetelly: "I did not know this was still a Catholic
Church." " It is Church of England — Protestant," Vizetelly
answered, whereupon Zola seemed lost in astonishment.
" Protestant ? " he whispered again, well, all that is very
much like Mass to me." Then he shrugged his shoulders
and led the way outside, where one waited till the service
was over. At the National Gallery he was most interested
in Turner, whom he called la palette incarnfie and whom he
regarded as being far superior to Claude. And he greatly
admired Turner's water-colour sketches in the little rooms
in the basement of the building, where he lingered for nearly
a couple of hours. The British Museum Library also pleased
him immensely, notably on account of its perfect arrange-

336 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

meats which, were so superior, said he, to those of the
Biblloth&que Rationale in Paris. However, what he admired
in London most of all was the Thames, at Westminster, at
Waterloo Bridge, and again at the docks and away towards
Greenwich. Of Hyde Park he formed a very poor opinion,
while that royal barracks, Buckingham Palace, seemed to
him a national disgrace: a view which most intelligent
foreigners share.

On the whole, Zola was extremely well pleased with his
stay in London; he had been received there with perfect
courtesy, Sir Edward Lawson, Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, Mr.
Charles Williams, then president of the London district of
the Institute of Journalists, Mr. Lucien Wolf, and others
had done all that lay in their power ; and Zola on his side
had at least made a breach in the wall of British prejudice.
The result could not be otherwise than good, he said to
Vizetelly ; there would probably be less antagonism to his
writings among English people in the future; but the
point which interested Mm most of all was the effect his
reception might have in Paris, notably among the members
of the French Academy. He had been denounced more
hotly in England than in any other country, he remarked,
and the fact that English people were now beginning to
take a more reasonable view of his work might possibly
react on Trench opinion. But, as we know, the Academy
did not disarm. The majority of its members would not
suffer his presence among them on any consideration.

Moreover, he had scarcely quitted England when the
fanatics once more raised their heads. At the Church Con-
gress which assembled at Birmingham that year, Dr. Pe~
rowne, the Bishop of Worcester, had the effrontery to

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER 337

declare that "Zola had spent his life in corrupting the
minds and souls not only of thousands of his fellow-coun-
trymen and especially of the young but also, by the trans-
lation of his works, thousands and hundreds of thousands
of young souls elsewhere/* At the same gathering Mr.
J. K C. Welldon, then Headmaster of Harrow School and
later Bishop of Bombay, denounced the novelist as "In-
famous," and besought the aid of Churchmen for the " Na-
tional Vigilant Association/' of which, according to "The
National Observer," he, Mr. Welldon, was " a conspicuous
ornament."1 The Bishop of Truro, speaking at a church
gathering in the west of England took a similar line, and
complained bitterly that translations of Zola's horrible
books were sold at the railway-station bookstalls, which,
said he, would never have been allowed in the lifetime of
that good man, Mr. W. H. Smith. Ernest Vizetelly an-
swered the prelate in a newspaper of his diocese, point-
ing out that the only Zola translations sold at Messrs.
Smith's bookstalls were those of "La D£Mcle" and "Le
Docteur Pascal" by himself, and that of "Le R§ve" by
Miss Eliza Chase ; and he defied the bishop to find in any
one of those three books a single sentence that could give
offence to any sensible man. Other correspondents rein-
forced Vizetelly; but the bishop; quite content with having
uttered his slander, preserved absolute silence, that being a
characteristic trait with some bishops — of various churches
and countries — who, regarding themselves as very supe-
rior persons, seldom if ever offer reparation for the asper-
sions they may cast upon laymen* Tet the law of libel

i "National Observer": "Kealist and Ranter," October 14, 1893.
Pp. 551-552.

338 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEB

applies to them as to others, and it is perhaps a pity it
is not enforced against them* But the lawyers say, or
at least they said to Vizetelly : " It is useless to proceed
against an English bishop. There is so much cant in this
country that yon would never obtain a verdict against
him, however complete your evidence might be."

As for Bishop Perowne of Worcester he was answered
in "The Speaker" by its contributor, Mr. A. T. Quiller-
Gouch, as well as by sundry correspondents, one of whom
pointed out that this chartered slanderer " had not so much
evidence to back his insinuations and assertions as would
wrap round a mustard seed." Mr. Welldon was also dealt
with at length and very ably by Mr. Quiller-Couch, the
controversy in "The Speaker" being prolonged until the
latter part of November.1 Ernest Vizetelly was at first
unaware of it, but a friend who, having little acquaintance
with literature, read that Liberal weekly chiefly for its po-
litical articles, said to him one day: "You ought to see
"The Speaker/ There's a lawyer who is defending Zola
and your father in it very vigorously. He is the kind of
man your father ought to have had as counsel at his trial"
"A lawyer?" Vizetelly replied, "why, what is his name?"
"Oh! he only appends his initials <A. T/ to his articles;
but I felt interested, and so I consulted the law-list at
my club, He's a Queen's counsel, by the way; and the
only Queen's counsel whose initials are A. T. is the Hon.
Alfred Thesiger, so he undoubtedly is the man." The
truth, however, had suddenly dawned on Vizetelly, who
began to laugh as he answered: "The initials are A. T.,
you say; but the writer puts Q. C. after them, does he

1 See notably the issues of October 14 and 28, 1903.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEB 339

not ? I thought so. Well, I am much obliged to you for
your information, but you are all at sea. Your Hon. Alfred
Thesiger, Q. C., is none other than Mr. A. T. Quiller-
Couch!" Then, while his friend was expressing his as-
tonishment, Vizetelly began to think of fame.

In the controversy in question Mr* Welldon, who ended
by admitting that he had read only three of Zola's books,
received the support of clerics of various denominations*
One of them, Canon MacOoll, of Ripon, who would seem to
have been then very fond of writing to the newspapers on
all sorts of subjects, raised the old argument that even
if Zola might have had some justification for publishing,
for instance, " La Terre " in France, there could have been
none for its issue in English and in England by Henry
Vizetelly. No doubt the canon was right. As was set
forth in a previous chapter the rural districts of England
were and are terrestrial paradises, where immorality and
beastliness were and are absolutely unknown. The ob-
servers who assert the contrary must be either liars or
deluded fools. The clergy who are to be found in every
village vouch for the high moral tone of their parish-
ioners ; and it follows that one must not believe those
who chance to sit on juries at provincial assizes to try
the various horrible cases, frequently from the aforesaid
rural districts, which are never reported by a decorous press.
Everything is for the best, then, in rural England, and
the most perfect men in the whole world are the truth-
speaking bishops who begin life in modest circumstances
and end by leaving huge fortunes to their families, the
many-sided canons fond of joining in every controversy,
and the dogmatic clerical schoolmasters who take as their

340 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFQEMEE

guide the saying attributed, perhaps erroneously,1 to Eiche-
lieu : " Give me six lines written by the most honest man
in the world, and I will find in them enough to have him
hanged.'1

Henry Yketelly, to whom his son forwarded "The
Speaker" while the controversy continued, observed with
some surprise Mr. Quiller-Couch's assertion that the public
conscience would not permit a repetition of such proceedings
as had been taken against him. He thereupon wrote to Mr.
Quiller-Couch saying that in his opinion the public con-
science could only find expression through the press, and
that in the event of a new prosecution the press would again
remain silent until the "National Vigilants" had secured
a verdict, when it would once more join in approving the
" vindication of the law." That view was shared by Vize-
tell/s son. Indeed, though Zola had been so well received
in London, even by some of the provincial journalists who
attended the Institute's Congress, though, too, newspaper
men of education had come to a truer perception of his aims,
aad several wrote very favourably about his more recent
books, it remained quite certain that he still had numerous
enemies on all sides. At the close of that year, 1893, or
more correctly on the first morning of the ensuing one,
Henry Vizetelly died, and immediately afterwards another
controversy began, this time in the London " Daily Chron-
icle." The chief features of the prosecutions of 1888 and
1889 were recalled by Eobert Buchanan, Frank Harris, and
George Moore, the first of whom dwelt on the attitude of the
press with respect both to those proceedings and to Zola
generally. Various protests arose, and, according to some

1 See fidouard Founder's <f L'Esprit dana 1'Hiatoire," Paria,1860, p. 229.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOBMER 341

people, it was quite untrue tlxat the English press had ever
flung mud at Zola or his publisher. The absurdity of that
contention was made manifest by the publication, at that
very moment, of several articles in which all the old lies
and aspersions were repeated. These, it is true, appeared
mostly in provincial journals; but two or three London
prints did not hesitate to befoul yet once again the dead
publisher as well as the recently banqueted novelist, whom
Gr* W. Story, when recounting the controversy in " The New
York Tribune," foolishly described as being " the most lewd
writer in the world." It must be said, to Story's credit, that
his article was a signed one ; whereas the valiant scribes of
the British press remained anonymous. They found, un-
doubtedly, that " anonymity in journalism " had its advan-
tages, and wisely decided to cling to it. Since that time,
however, the practice of signing critical articles has spread
considerably and may some day become the general rule.

A CRITICAL GLANCE

1893

Zola's short stories — His early novels — His sense of poetry and Ms realism

— Poetry and science — The futility of literary dogmas — The law of
change — The influence of science on literature — Why Zola became a
novelist — His attitude towards life and his fellow-men — The Rougon-
Macquart series — The order in which it was published and the order in
which it should be read — " Rougon-Macquart " and "Robert Macair^"

— A survey of the volumes — Their human and animal characters- —
0reat variety of their contents — How they were prepared — Zola's
alleged ignorance — His handwriting — His style — Some fine pages —
Some blunders — Various critical remarks — The series as a whole — A
living psychology — Some remarks on translations — A glance at Zola as
a playwright.

IN previous chapters one lias enumerated the many books
— novels, volumes of tales and essays — put forth by Zola
from the time he began to write until he completed the
Bougon-Macquart series. That completion marks a date in
his career, and it is now fit one should glance back at the
work he had accomplished. His minor writings may be
noticed briefly. His first volume, "Les Contes & Ninon,"
suggests the influence of Victor Hugo largely tempered by
that of Alfred de Musset, with here and there, too, some
sign of incipient realism. It is immediately apparent that
much time and care were spent on the writing of these tales,
the style of which is often perfect and always charming.
The companion volume, " Nouveaux Contes k Ninon," pub-
lished ten years later, is inferior to the earlier one, much
of the matter contained within its covers being but news-

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 343

piper work. Nevertheless "Les Quatre Jounces de Jean
Gourdon " Is in its way admirable ; and in " Le Petit Man-
teau bleu " one recognises the spirit which presided over the
former tales. Realism is often quite manifest in this second
volume, and the explanations given in its preface are almost
superfluous, for one can easily tell that it is the work of
a man who has passed through the furnace, whereas the
first volume was all youth, buoyant, aspiring, with wings
unclipt.

Zola's other tales, those in the volumes entitled <cLe
Capitaine Burle" and "Nals Micoulin," belong to a later
date and are very different from the early ones. If the
influence of the poets appears in them at intervals, it is in
diction rather than ideas. Even the poetic suggestion lurk-
ing in the tale " Pour une nuit d'amour," which Poe might
almost have written, can only be traced with difficulty, for it
is wrapped in a ghastly realism. The story of " Nantas " is
perhaps the best of these later little efforts, as it is certainly
the most powerful ; but " Nais Micoulin " is also one of the
present writer's favourites, perhaps because, whatever its
ardour, it does no violence to possibilities. Placed beside
the tales of Guy de Maupassant, those of Zola, in spite of
all the naturalism of their details, strike one as being more
romantic, more imaginative ; and this is as it should be, for
Zola was largely a child of the sun, whereas Maupassant,
however passionate his temperament, was always a Norman,
deficient in the purely imaginative faculty but possessed of
great shrewdness — intuition, so to say, — which assisted his
powers of observation and his superb craftsmanship. Thus
he excelled in transcribing the human document such as it
appears to most Northern minds.

344 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

As it is with Zola's short stories so it is with his earlier
novels; "La Confession de Claude" is a struggle between
poetry and reality, the presentment of a soul longing for the
empyrean but forced to surrender to all the horrors of degra-
dation. The fragmentary * Veen d'une Morte " contains in-
dications of the same battle continuing. "Les Myst&res
de Marseilles " is a thing apart ; but, at last, in " Th&rkse
Raquin " and " Madeleine F£rat " realism triumphs brutally
and in its first victorious hour blackens the canvas to excess.
Average truth is disregarded — as Zola himself admits —
and the agony is piled on to the point of nightmare. This
is done, perchance, by the realist in Zola in order that
no loophole may be left for the poet, also within him, to
rise again.

But take the Rougon-Macquart series, and there, amid all
the realism of twenty volumes, a revival of the poetic sense
will be found displaying itself repeatedly. Remember the
idyll of Silv&re and Miette, that of Marjolin and Cadine,
that of Ang^lique and F&icien, that of Serge and Albine, the
Paradou, H41&ne and Henri, the vistas of Paris from the
heights of Passy, the love of Goujet for Gervaise, even that
of Georges Hugon for Nana, the epic march of the miners
in "Germinal/* the epic charge of the cavalry at Sedan,
Clotilde's communion with herself while giving suck to her
babe, and all the other instances. There may be no trace
of poetry and romance in " Th&&se Raquin," but Zola when
writing that book must have known full well that he had
only scotched, not killed, his poetic tendencies. To under-
stand him aright, let us remember that he made his dgbuts at
a time when science was enlarging her domain daily. For
him she exercised a fascination equal to that of art. In his

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 345

youth lie had turned eagerly to certain scientific studies
even while he was steeping himself in poetiy, and later he
devoured Mourens, Zimmermann, translations of the great
scientists of England and Germany. He saw that there was
often a deep poetry in science ; he dreamt of making it mani-
fest, — of going further, — of associating science and art, of
establishing their co-relation, welding them together even
in instances when to some folk they seemed to be antag-
onistic. His nature, as one has remarked previously, was
a compound, a hybrid one, by no means unique, but such
as is not often observed. " Lewis Carroll " supplies a some-
what approximate instance ; in him one found the mathe-
matician elbowing the romancer, only he did not dream
of importing " Euclid " into "Alice." Zola, in doing so, or
rather in doing something similar, was not entirely influ-
enced by his own special nature, but was carried along by
the spirit of Ms age, in which everything tended towards
science. Those who remember Darwin and Faraday and
Huxley and the others, and the thirst that came on so
many young men in those days, will not gainsay it

The literary critics declared, of course, and many of them
declare still, that Zola was altogether wrong. Regarding
Art as being so distinct, so different from Science that no
amalgam could be effected, they laid down and still lay
down certain rules as being necessary to salvation. That
attitude was and is preposterous to the open mind which
holds that no dogmas are of any account, and that of those
who frame them one may say in Dante's words :
" Non-ragionam di lor, ma guarda e passa."

It is true that some critics have asserted that if there be no
finality in science there is a finality in art. But in fiction,

346 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

with which alone one is concerned here," the form has
changed repeatedly, and on each such occasion the loud
protests raised by the representatives of old and recognised
schools have proved ineffectual. One rule, one dogma after
another, has been set aside, and still and ever the evolution
has continued. To say that the artist in fiction must do
this and must not do that is to expose oneself to the ridi-
cule, at times, even of one's contemporaries, and certainly of
posterity. Take a comparatively recent epoch and think
of the dogmas and the protests brought forward by the
Classiques in their great contest with the Komantiques in
France, and remember who, in the end, were vanquished.
Thus men of conservative views may protest, but if there
be a good cause for any evolution, which one or another
writer may essay, it will end by triumphing in spite of all
the opposition offered to it

The art of the novelist has been often likened to that
of the painter, but it does not follow that this is the only
possible comparison. A novelist may liken himself to a
sculptor, in fact to anybody he chooses. Nothing, more-
over, is final The world, as modern scientists have just re-
discovered, and as Heraclitus asserted three and twenty
centuries ago, is not a being but a becoming. Change is
the universal law, even in matter ; and if some minds, im-
prisoned within narrow ideas and formulas, find it impossible
to contemplate the possibility of certain changes, they must
yield to the broader minds for which everything is possible.
The world's changes are reflected in its literature. Science
within our own time has profoundly modified the study
and the writing of history. As for the novel, the Roman-
ticists spoke no last word, for it was not in their power

J£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 347

to do so. Whether Zola had arisen or not, it was fatal
that the novel should at last embrace many things which
earlier writers of fiction had never dreamt of including in
it, that it should, in a word, follow the trend of the modern
mind.

Among writers, moreover, there are always many whose
aim is not mere amusement Some openly declare instruc-
tion, enlightenment, to be their purpose. Some are only
half conscious of their mission, some not at all, and it hap-
pens not unfrequently that a lesson is conveyed in books
where it has been never intended. At one time the drama
was the form of literature which appealed most success-
fully to the greater number. The novel at last acquired
a similar position, and it followed that the writer who
wished to reach the greater number had to approach them
as a novelist. That had been done long before the time
of Zola, who was both a writer with a purpose and one who
wished to reach the majority. STow, if an author desire
to bring about some reformation of the community, it is
natural that he should begin by portraying it If he wish
to elucidate certain social, scientific, and psychological prob-
lems for the common good, it is essential that he should in
the first case state them. In that event, say some pedants,
he must confine himself to treatises of the accepted form.
But the author answers no, for such treatises would not
reach the greater number, and his purpose would then
remain unfulfilled. To reach them he must approach them
in the only literary form for which they care: he must
embody his views in novels. " I have, in my estimation,"
said Zola, "certain contributions to make to the thought
of the world on certain subjects, and I have chosen the

348 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

novel as the best means of communication. To tell me
that I must not do so is nonsense. I claim it as my right,
and who are you to gainsay it?"

But let us pass to another point The oft-repeated asser-
tion that Zola confined himself to portraying the ulcers
and sores of life is contrary to fact He undoubtedly found
more evil than good in the community, and he insisted on
the evil because it was that which needed remedying. But
he blamed nobody for extolling the higher side of life. He
denounced the writers who cast a deceptive and often
poisonous glamour over the imperfections of the world, he
railed at many of the people who pretended to be very
good, for he was not deceived by hypocrisy and cant ; but,
at the same time, he never held that mankind was naturally
evil. He attributed its blemishes to its social systems, its
superstitions, the thousand fallacies amid which it was
reared, and his whole life was a battle with those fallacies,
those superstitions, and those systems.

As he contended against so many generally accepted
opinions it was inevitable that his work and even his pur-
pose should be greatly misjudged. Critics took in turn one
and another volume of his Rougon-Macquart series, and pro-
nounced condemnation on it It was only when, after long
years, the series was at last finished that some little justice
was shown to the author. It should be remembered that
no volume of the series is in itself a really complete work.
The series indeed is the book, the volumes are but chapters
of it. Besides, they ought not to be taken nowadays
in the order in which they were originally published. It
occasionally happens that writers are unable to produce
their works in proper sequence. There have been instances

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 349

when the second and fourth volumes of some literary under-
taking have been published before the first and the third.
So it was with the Kougon-Macquart novels. Zola was no
walking encyclopaedia. Every now and again it happened
that he was not ready for the volume which by rights
should have followed the one he had just finished. He
lacked, at the moment, sufficient knowledge of the subject
which that next volume was to embrace. Or else, as also
happened at times, his fancy or his feelings or some combi-
nation of circumstances carried him onward, inducing him
to skip a volume for a time. But he always reverted to it
afterwards, like an author who, writing not twenty volumes,
but one, has passed over some troublesome chapter, yet
harks back and writes it at last, well knowing that his work
will lack completeness and intelligibility if the gap be not
filled up.

In the chronicle of Zola's career given in our previous
chapters, the Bougon-Macquart volumes have "been men-
tioned in their chronological order ; but the example of the
critics who, even since the completion of the series, have
followed that same order in judging Zola's work is not one
to imitate. By adopting that system one may certainly
trace the variations in Zola's general style over a term of
years ; but if the series is to be judged as a whole one must
take its sections in the order in which the author himself
desired they should be read. This he indicated in "Le
Docteur Pascal/' and confirmed by word of mouth to the
present writer; and it is unfortunate, perhaps, that the
French publishers should still " list * the volumes chrono-
logically, thereby leading many readers astray. Some vol-
umes of course — notably the first and the last — occupy

350 tMJLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

their proper places in the lists, but others have to be taken
in a very different order.

Before passing the series in review one may say a few
words respecting the two names, Rougon and Macquart,
which, linked together, have supplied it with a general
title. Some years ago those names were noticed by the
present writer in sundry old documents relating to an
abbey in Champagne, but Zola declared them to be com-
mon names in Provence. As for Macquart — long famil-
iar to Parisians in connection with the knacker's trade —
it is a suggestive circumstance that in Zola's younger
days there was a bookseller at Aix, named Makaire,
whom he may well have known. Makaire, of course is
merely a variant of Macaire; and it is not necessary to
be familiar with the famous " Auberge des Adrets,M and the
wonderful impersonation of Fr£d£rick Lemaitre, to know
that "Robert Macaire" is regarded by the French as a type
of braggart rascal, as cynical, as impudent as "Tartuffe" is
hypocritical and sneakish. Zola, then, in the writer's
opinion, adopted that vulgar name Macquart because it
resembled Macaire, and put Eougon before it in lieu of
Robert. He pictured the Rougon-Macquarts as the Robert-
Macaires of the Second Empire, and the idea came to
him, perhaps, the more readily as Napoleon III. had been
repeatedly caricatured as Robert Macaire, a brazen knave
repeating abracadalrant axioms amid the applause of his
followers. Thus the title of the Rougon-Macq[uarts, if taken
as synonymous with the Robert-Macaires, will suffice to
explain a good deal of Zola's series.

Let us now glance at the volumes. In " La Fortune des
Rougon " (I) the author describes the origin of the Rougons

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEE 351

and the Macqiiarts. One Adelaide Fouque, a woman of
hysterical nature who eventually goes mad, — a variety
of disorders being transmitted to most of her descendants, —
marries a man named Eougon, and on his death lives with
another named Macquart. By the former she has a son,
Pierre Eougon ; "by the latter a son, Antoine, and a daughter,
TJrsule Macquart This daughter marries a hatter named
Motiret, and thus at the outset of the series the second
generation of the family is shown divided into three
"branches* In the third generation it increases to eleven
members ; In the fourth to thirteen. In the fifth it dwindles,
Its vitiated energies now being largely spent ; and though,
there are indications of its continuance in sundry children
who do not appear on the scene, the hope o? regeneration
rests virtually in only one child, a boy three months old
when the curtain finally descends. In " La Fortune des
Eougon," then, we are shown old Adelaide Fouque, her chil-
dren and some of theirs, all more or less poverty-stricken
and striving for wealth, which comes with the foundation
of the Second Empire. The scene is laid at Plassans —
Aix, as was formerly explained — and one sees the Imperial
rSffime established there by craft and bloodshed.

Next comes "Son Excellence Eugfene Eougon" (II)
which carries one to Paris, where the fortunes of the eldest
of the Eougon brothers, first an advocate and at last an
all-powerful minister of state, are followed in official and
political circles. The court of Napoleon III appears at the
Tuileries and at Compfegne, where one meets, among others,
a beautiful Italian adventuress, Clorinde Balbi — suggestive
of the notorious Countess de Castiglione — with a mother
reminiscent of Madame de Montijo. And in other chapters

352 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

of the volume the scheming and plotting of the reign, the
official jobbery and corruption, are traced for several years.

"La Curfe" (III) follows, and one turns to Eugene
Rougon's younger brother, Aristide, who has assumed the
pseudonym of Saecard. With him the reader joins in the
great rush for the spoils of the new regime. A passion for
money and enjoyment seizes on one and all, debauchery
reigns in society, and a fever of reckless speculation is
kindled by the transformation of Paris under Baron Hauss-
mann and his acolytes. Men and women sell themselves.
Ren^e, Saceard's second wife, passes from mere adultery to
incest, becoming a modern Phaedra, while Saccard himself
leads the life of an eager, gluttonous bird of prey, which he
continues in the ensuing volume, " L'Argent " (IV), where
the Bourse — the money-market — is shown with all its
gambling, its thousand tricks and frauds.

So far the series might seem a mere record of roguery,
vice, and corruption, but those who know the books are
aware that such is not the case. Silvfcre and Miette stand
for love and all the better qualities of humanity in the first
volume; there are at least the Martinets and the Berauds
in the second and third ; and the devoted Madame Caroline,
the honest Hamelin, the pious Princess d'Orviedo, the
dreamy, generous-hearted Sigismond, the loving Jordans,
and the unfortunate Mazaud, all figure in the fourth, amid
the scramble for gold in which the other characters
participate.

In sharp contrast with that greed for gain is the picture
offered by the next volume, "Le R§ve" (V), where an im-
maculate lily arises from the hot-bed of vice, whence later,
and as a further contrast, a type of foul shamelessness,

Photo by femiie Zola

Denise and Jacques

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOKMEE 353

Nana, the harlot, is also to spring. But it is best not to
anticipate- In the first four volumes the Kougons, under
the influence of heredity and surroundings, have shown
themselves scoundrels, whereas in Ang41ique, the heroine of
* Le K£ve," a girl of their blood appears who is all purity
and candour. She comes upon the scene, precisely at this
moment, to emphasise the author's conviction that, whatever
he may have had to depict in his solicitude for truth, all
is not vice, degradation, and materialism, that there are other
aspirations in life besides the thirst for wealth, enjoyment
and power. And here, too, the priesthood is shown in its
better aspect: the good Abb4 Cornille, the proud, heart-
broken Bishop d'Hautecoeur, in contrast with whom the
scheming, unscrupulous Abb£ Faujas appears in the next
section of the series.

This is "La Conqu§te de Plassans" (VI) which retains
one in the provinces (whither one is carried from Paris
in " Le B§ve "), and one is confronted by a carefully painted
picture of middle-class society in a small town, this in its
turn contrasting with the previous pictures of life in Paris.
And now the baleful results which may attend marriages
between cousins are exemplified. Marthe Eougon has
married Frangois Mouret, and both have inherited lesions
from their common ancestress, Adelaide Fouque. One of
their children, D£sir£e, physically strong and healthy, is
mentally an " innocent " ; and they themselves are unhinged,
the workings of their heredity being accentuated and
hastened by the wiles of Faujas, the priest, who gains
access to their home. He is a secret agent of the imperial
government, and thus one again sees the Empire at work in
the provinces, utilising the clergy to enforce its authority,

354 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

and as often as not betrayed by it IE the end all collapses.
The maddened Mouret sets fire to his home and perishes
in the flames with AbW Faiijas, while Marfche dies of a
disorder springing from her inherited hysteria.

Then, the middle class of the provinces having been
sketched, that of the metropolis is depicted with an unspar-
ing hand. The career of the Mourets' eldest son, Octave, is
followed, first through the pages of " Pot-Bouille " (VII), in
which he appears as a kind of modern Don Juan, a Don
Juan stripped of all poetry, all glamour, a sensualist of our
great cities, the man who prowls, not among the unhappy
creatures of the streets, but among the women of outward
respectability who may help him to acquire position and
fortune. The scene is laid in a house of the Rue de
Ghoiseul, in the centre of Paris; and all around Octave
gravitate depraved, venal, egotistical, and sickly beings,
adulterous households, unscrupulous match-making mothers,
dmi-werge$ who will only marry for money, dowry hunters,
slatternly servant girls, and that type of the middle-class
debauchee who makes those girls his prey. And the pleas-
ing figures in the work are few — poor old Josserand, for
instance, and the charming Madame H^douin, with the
prosperous author on the first floor, who drives in his car-
riage and has two handsome children. At the same time
the book pours a stream of light first on all the ignoble
shifts to which middle-class folk of small means are put in
their insane endeavours to ape their wealthier neighbours,
and secondly on the evils that arise from that dowry system
which superficial people regard as proving the foresight and
wisdom of the French when they embark on the sea of
matrimony. As a matter of fact, it frequently happens

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER 355

that this dowry system entirely blights married life. As
often as not the dowry itself is a mere snare and delusion
— the bride's parents retaining the principal, and merely
serving the interest until their death, when, as in the case
of Zola's old Vabre, the parental fortune may have entirely
disappeared !

In "Au Bonheur des Dames" (VIII) Octave Mourefe
appears again, a sensualist still but also a man of enter-
prise, at the head of a a Grand Magasin de Nouveaut^s," a
Temple of Temptation, which revolutionises trade and pan-
ders to the feminine love of finery. Here the bourgeoisie IB
shown elbowing the class immediately below it, a world of
employes, clerks, shopmen and shop-girls, whose lives, like-
wise, are full of evil. But again a girl of admirable recti-
tude, Denise Baudu, comes forward to illumine the novelist's
pages, and redeem and ennoble the man who has hitherto
regarded her sex as an instrument or a toy.

When Zola has cast Octave Mouret at the feet of Denise,
thereby exemplifying a pure woman's influence over man,
he again transfers his scene from bustling Paris to a lonely
region of the southern provinces, there to follow the career
of Octave's brother, Serge. In "La Faute de I'AtiW Mouret"
(IX) the battle is again one between woman, love, and
man; but a new factor appears — religion — for Serge is
a priest, bound by the unnatural vow of his calling, one of
hysterical, mystical temperament also, enslaved by the
superstitions of his creed. In his tumble-down parsonage
and his little, decaying, forsaken church, amid a semi-savage,
brutish peasantry, he long strives to resist the cry of nature.
But she at last asserts her might, and the novelist carries
the reader into the enchanted garden of the Paradou, where

356 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

love reigns supreme. Yet the golden hours are brief : the
priest is recalled to his religion of death, and he cannot
resist the call, for all the training of years which has con-
firmed and increased his mystical tendency comes back,
and he is helpless. Thus the natural life is forsaken for
the illusions and dogmas of a creed; and Albine, whom
Serge has loved, is left forlorn with her unborn babe, to lie
down and die amid the perfume of the flowers with which
she has strewn her bed. Serge it is who casts the symboli-
cal pinch of earth upon her coffin, for he has resumed his
ministry among the brutish peasants, dedicating all his
efforts to slay the sex given him by his God, for instead of
living as a man he must obey the command of his Church
and live as an eunuch.

After that battle with nature and love, there comes a
companion picture: the fall of Hfldne Mouret in "Une
Page d* Amour n (X)< She has hitherto led an absolutely
blameless life, but a sudden passion sweeps her off her feet*
A tragic sombreness attends the episode. No glamour is
cast over woman's frailty in Zola's pages. If H£13ne tastes
an hour of intoxication she is punished for it as frightfully
as any moralist could desire. Jeanne, her fondly loved
daughter, who is devoured by jealous hysteria, dies as the
result of her lapse ; and it is only afterwards, in pity as it
were, that H^lfene is granted the chance of beginning her
life afresh.

Then the series continues. All the Rougons — excepting
one, Pascal, whom the novelist keeps back till the end —
have now been dealt with, the Mourets also, and the chronicle
of the bastard Macquart branch begins. Antoine Macquart
has three children, Lisa, Gervaise, and Jean, and it is Lisa

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEB 357

who supplies the next volume of the series, * Le Yentre da
Paris'* (XI), which carries one through and around the
great markets of the French metropolis, as well as into the
fine pork-butcher's shop, which Lisa keeps with her hus-
hand, Quenu. This is a volume redolent of victuals cer-
tainly, marked also by the egotism of the shopkeeping
and petty trading classes, with yet a glimpse of one of
those conspiracies which were frequent in the time of
Napoleon III, and a backward glance at the coup d'etat by
which that sovereign had risen to power. The chief figure
in the story is Quenu's brother, the unhappy Florent, who
has escaped from Cayenne, and whom lisa, that comfortable
egotist, ends by betraying to the authorities. For that ultra-
righteous deed, — counselled by Lisa's confessor, — and for
the savagery of all the fat fishwives, one is consoled by
the presence of honest Madame Frangois and of Cadine, the
little flower-girl, and Marjolin, her youthful lover, whose
smile brightens many a page.

Then, in " La Joie de Vivre " (XII), comes Pauline, whose
nature is so different from that of her mother, Lisa. She
has no egotism in her composition; she would never betray
anybody ; she is all human devotion and self-sacrifice. With
her we are carried to the seashore, to a little fisher hamlet,
where her guardian Chanteau dwells ; and he, his wife, and
his son prey upon her, wrecking her life, though she remains
brave and smiling till the end. And how little joy there
may be in life is shown not only by her case, but by that of
the crippled Chanteau, his embittered, covetous, suspicious
wife, his jealous servant, and his weak-minded son, who
tries to be this and that, but succeeds in nothing and is
consumed by a foolish, unreasoning dread of death. It is to

858 EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

these that Pauline has to minister, for these that she has to
sacrifice herself, even as it often happens that the good
have to lay down their lives for the unworthy.

Pauline, one has said, is very different from her mother,
Lisa. Equally different is Lisa's sister, Gervaise, the pa-
thetic heroine of " L'Assommoir " (XIII), with which the
family chronicle is continued. Lisa rises, Gervaise falls;
so does it happen in many of the world's families. Zola has
now descended through several strata of society, and has
come to the working classes. A deep pathos lies beneath
the picture he traces of them under the bane of drink. At
first Gervaise appears so courageous amid her misfortunes
that one can readily grant her the compassionate sympathy
accorded to every trusting woman whom a coward abandons.
There seems hope for her at the outset of her marriage with
Goupeau; a possibility, too, that she may prove successful
when, industrious and energetic, she starts her little laundry
business. But her husband's lazy, drunken ways recoil on
her, the return of the rascally Lantier completes her mis-
fortune, and then she rolls down hill, to die at last of
starvation. The stage of " L'Assommoir " is crowded with
typical figures, some of them perchance imperishable, for
their names have passed into the French language to serve
as designations for one and another degraded character that
one encounters in every-day life. Yet all the personages of
Zola's work are not depraved. Even in this dark book
there are a few who point to the brighter side of human
nature, honest Goujet, for instance, and Lalie, the poor,
pitiful "little mother." Gervaise and Coupeau themselves
are not wholly vile. In the midst of their degradation,
when she prowls the boulevard in the snow, when he is

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 359

dancing madly in his padded cell, one instinctively retraces
their careers hack to the early days when hoth had looked
so hopefully on life ; and one recognises that a fatal environ-
ment, more than natural worthlessness, has heen the great
cause of their downfall.

Nana already appears — in her childhood and her youth
— in the pages of " L' Assommoir," hut Zola does not pass
direct from that work to the later career of Gervaise's
daughter. He first takes Gervaise's elder children, her sons
by Lantier ; and " L'CEuvre " (XIV) unfolds the painful story
of Claude, the painter, a glimpse of whom has been given
previously in " Le Ventre de Paris." Again in " L'CEuvre,"
one finds a record of downfall, but, whereas in " L* Assom-
moir " it has largely resulted from environment and circum-
stances, it now proceeds more directly from an evil heredity.
Claude stands virtually on the border line that parts insanity
from genius, and thus in his career, the old hypotheses of
Moreau of Tours, and those subsequently enunciated in
England by Nesbit, might find play. In the end, after a
life of conflict and misery, insanity triumphs and Claude
destroys himself. His tale, as one has stated previously,
is linked with a picture of the French art-world Fortu-
nately a current of human interest flows through the book,
for beside Claude the unhappy Christine, his wife, appears :
she, like Gervaise, at first being a good, true, and courageous
woman, one who commits the irremediable mistake of link-
ing her life with that of a man fated to failure and insanity.

In these last sections of Zola's series the march of de-
generescence is hastened ; downfall follows downfall ; before
long that of individuals is to be succeeded by a supreme
collapse, that of the regime under which they live. Thus,

3t)U EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOKMEK

after "L'OEuvre," comes "La B£te Humaine" (XV), Claude's
brother Jacques, an engine-driver, in whom a murderer
appears among the Kougon-Macquarts. The hereditary
virus, transmitted from Adelaide Fouque, has turned in him
to an insensate craving for woman's blood, and, frankly, his
story is horrible. At the same time, while one follows the
growth of his abominable disease, many a vivid page arrests
attention: awful, yet a masterpiece of colloquial narrative
and full of a penetrating psychology, is Severine's account
of the murder of President Grandmorin; very human is
Jacques' love for his engine, La Lison ; and striking are the
pictures of the snowstorm, the railway accident, and the
death of Jacques and the stoker Pecqueux, at the end of
the volume, when their train, crowded with soldiers, is
seen rushing driverless, like some great, maddened, blind
beast, towards catastrophe and annihilation.

Next the story of Gervaise'a third son, fitienne, is unfolded
in " Germinal "• (XVI), this again a tale of the workers, the
hardships, the misery, the degradation of the sweated toilers
of the coal-pits, who are maddened by want to revolt. And
then, of course, they are shot down by the soldiers at the
disposal of the capitalists who batten on the sufferings of
labour. A tribute of compassion, a call for justice, a cry
of warning to the rich and powerful — such, as Zola himself
said, is " Germinal.1' Those who wonder at the hatred of
the workers for those above them, at the spread of socialism
throughout France, need merely read his pages to under-
stand why and how such things have come to pass.

But "Nana " (XVII) now confronts the reader. He has
just passed through the world of labour : drunkenness, degra-
dation, insanity, crime, revolution have been indicated sue-

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 361

cessively as resultants of the condition of the masses ; and
here comes another product of an evil social system, the
low-born harlot who, like an unconscious instrument of
retribution, ascends from her native dung-heap to poison
the bourgeoisie and aristocracy — the rulers, the law-givers,
to whom the existence of that dung-heap and its evil
ferments is due. In "Nana" depravity coruscates. Here
is the so-called " life of pleasure " of the world's great cities,
the life of indulgence which recruits its votaries among all
the aristocracies, all the plutocracies, all the bourgeoisies,
all the bohemias. To some, Nana may seem to be " a scourge
of God " — assuredly the world's Nanas have wrought more
evil than its Attilas — " a punishment on men for their lewd
and lawless sensuality," In Zola's pages one does not wit-
ness merely the ruin and disgrace of the professedly profli-
gate ; one sees also how natural, youthful desire when exposed
to temptation may ripen into depravity and end in misery.
One sees, again, the reflex action of libertinism on married
life — how wives end at times by following the example of
their husbands, and even " bettering the instruction." l From
first to last this much-maligned book is a stupendous warn-
ing for both sexes, as great a denunciation of the social evil
as ever was penned.

But the scene changes, and in "La Terre" (XVIII) appears
Jean Macquart, soldier and artisan, who becomes a peasant
He, though a brother of Gervaise, has escaped the hereditary
taint, is strong, sensible, hardworking, a man destined, one
might think, to a life of useful and happy obscurity. But
fate casts him among the Fouans, a family of untutored

1 See a clever study of "Nana," by H. Schutz- Wilson in the " New Cen-
tury Review," Vol. V, No. 26, February, 1899.

362 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

peasants, barely raised above animality; and a drama of
savage greed and egotism is unfolded around him. Old
Fouan, being no longer able to till his fields himself, divides
his property among his children, who agree to make him
an allowance. But he is cheated, ill-treated, robbed of his
savings by them, and finally murdered by one of his sons.
That same son, Buteau, is consumed by a ravenous earth-
hunger, but animal desire is also strong within him. He is
both enamoured and jealous of his wife's sister, Frangoise,
who is Jean Macquart's wife, his passion for her being
blended with a craving to appropriate her land. At last
she, by violence, becomes his victim, and in a struggle with
her sister, who is present, is thrown upon a scythe and
mortally injured. That crime is witnessed by old Fouan,
and it is for fear lest he should reveal it that he is stifled —
then, burnt.

From " La Terre " Jean Macquart passes to " La D^Mcle n
(XIX), for the time has now come for the great smash-up
of that Empire all tinsel without and all rottenness within.
War and invasion descend upon France. You follow the
retreating soldiers from the Rhine to the Meuse, on that
terrible, woeful march to Sedan, where all becomes disaster.
You see the wretched Emperor borne along in the baggage
train of his army, carried, it was thought, to certain death
in the hope that France might then forgive, and allow his
son to reign. And you see him under fire, vainly courting
death, which will not take him. Then the horrors of
Bazeilles, the struggle for the Calvary, the great charge, the
hoisting of the white flag, the truce, and the abject surrender
follow in swift succession. Next comes the battlefield after
the slaughter, with the dreadful Camp of Misery, and later,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 363

the efforts of the National Defence, the peace imposed
on the vanquished, and then the Commune's horrors crown-
ing all. But from first to last human interest is never
absent : one finds it in the friendship of Jean for the unlucky
and degenerate Maurice, in the story of Silvine and Prosper,
in the bravery of Weiss, the heroism of Henriette, Jean's
love for her, and the hope that both, hereafter, may be able
to begin life afresh and together, a hope which is blasted by
the fatality of civil war, when brother rushes on brother
and blindly slays him.

At last comes "Le Docteur Pascal" (XX), the zealous
scientist who sits in judgment on his family. You see him
among his documents, sifting evidence, explaining the
heredity of one and another relative, expounding the whole
theory of atavism which underlies Zola's series. The old
ancestress, Adelaide Fouque, is still alive, a centenarian,
mad, confined for many years in a lunatic asylum. Her
son, Antoine Macquart, also survives, still an unscrupulous
knave and a confirmed drunkard, until spontaneous com-
bustion destroys him, while hemorrhage carries off little
Charles, the last delicate, degenerate scion of the exhausted
stock. Pascal himself would seem to have escaped the
hereditary taint; but after a long life of celibacy, spent
in the study and practice of medicinei his passions awaken,
and he falls in love with Clotilde, his niece. He strives
to overcome that passion, he wishes to marry the girl to his
friend Ramond, but she will not have it so, and in her turn
becomes a temptress. Then the impetuous blood of the
Rougons masters them both, and they fall into each other's
arms. Previously, old Madame F£Licitd, Pascal's mother,
has tried to use Glotilde as an instrument to effect the

364 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

destruction of the documents which the doctor has collected,
for the family would be dishonoured should they ever see
the light The girl has also tried to convert Pascal to her
own religious views ; but all in vain. A period of delirious
folly ensues, Pascal turns prodigal in his old age, and is at
last brought to ruin by a dishonest notary. Then Olotilde
and he have to part, and he dies, struck down by heart
disease. The young woman survives with a child, his son
and hers, who, perhaps, may yet rejuvenate the dwindling
race. And we see her nursing her babe and indulging in a
thousand hopes, as the curtain at last descends on the his-
tory of the Rougon-Macquarts.1

Such, then, is Zola's great series : one work in twenty
volumes, in whose pages appear twelve hundred human

1 In our summary of the novels we have left the scientific questions on
one side. It would "be impossible to deal with them adequately here, and
those who are curious on the subject must consult "Le Docteur Pascal,"
from which we venture to quote just one paragraph, which indicates Zola's
views in a general way ; ** We see that human creatures may appear radically
different one from another, though they merely typify so many logical modi-
fications of their common ancestors. The trunk explains the branches, and
the branches explain the leaves. Although Saccard and Eugene Rougon
differ so much in temperament and mode of life, the same impulsion pro-
duced the former's ravenous appetites and the latter's sovereign ambition.
Angelique, a spotless lily, came from an equivocal creature like Sidonie, for
the same influence determines either mysticism or sexual passion according to
environment. In the case of Mouret's children the inspiration makes an
intelligent man like Octave a millionaire dealer in finery, causes Serge, a
believer, to become a poor priest, while De'siree, a witless creature, develops
into a physically handsome and happy girl. . . . But the neurosis passes to
Gervaise's children, and ETana sells herself, iStienne rebels, Jacques murders,
and Claude is endowed with a measure of genius ; while Pauline, their cousin-
german, becomes a personification of victorious rectitude, a battling and self-
sacrificing woman. That is heredity, life itself, which produces imbeciles,
madmen, criminals, and great men. Certain cells collapse, others take their
place, and a rascal or a raving lunatic appears instead of a genius or a mere
honest man. And meantime mankind continues rolling onward, carrying all
along with it."

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 365

characters besides many others, such as La Lison, the
engine which Jacques Lantier worships and which seems
to be endowed with life; such, too, as old Bonhomme,
Pascal's horse; Bataille and Trompette, the horses of the
coal-pit ; Zephyr, who falls in the great cavalry charge at
Sedan ; Mathieu and Bertrand, the two big dogs ; Pologne,
the unlucky rabbit ; Minouche, the egotistical cat ; G&l6on,
the comical donkey who gets drunk in the vintage scene of
* La Terre" ; C^sar, the great bull at La Borderie; La Coliche
and her calves ; Mathieu, D^sirde's pig ; Alexandre, her big
lusty rooster, and a score of others. Zola always loved
animals ; he put them into his books, and they entered
largely into his life. As for the human characters of his
great series these are of all classes, all kinds. Napoleon
III appears in various volumes, at the Tuileries, at Com-
pifegne, at St. Cloud, and again and again during the war of
1870. The Empress is seen also, like the Duke de Morny
and other high personages of state. Members of one and
another aristocracy, politicians and functionaries, judges and
lawyers, medical men and other scientists, bishops and priests,
generals and soldiers, company promoters, speculators and
shareholders, schoolmasters and revolutionaries, lourgeois
of Paris and the provinces, artists and shopkeepers, street
hawkers, peasants and miners, workmen of innumerable
callings, pass across Zola's stage. The reader enters the
homes of all those classes ; he goes from the palace to the
hovel, from the dancing-hall to the coal-pit, from the cathe-
dral to the boozing-ken, from the artist's studio to the Cham-
ber of Deputies, from the great drapery shop to the harlot's
boudoir ; he sees Paris, her boulevards, her slums, her prome-
nades, her theatres, her quays, under twenty different aspects,

366 ^JMILB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

at dawn, at noon, at night, in shine and rain and snow ; he
travels to the rocky shore of a "boisterous and predatory sea ;
he finds fairyland in the magic garden of the Paradou ; he
roams the bleak coal country of the north ; he is buffeted by
the mistral and scorched by the blazing sun of Provence ; he
gazes on La Beauce, an ocean of waving corn, and on the
battlefield of Sedan, strewn with the dead and dying. Re-
ligion, politics, sociology, art, science, trade, agriculture,
military affairs, life's characteristics, duties, functions, errors
and aims, love, marriage, eating, drinking, and a hundred
other matters are discussed before him. Beautiful friend-
ships, confiding loves, ardent passions, terrible jealousies and
rivalries, lofty aspirations, horrid lusts, generous sacrifices,
deeds of bravery and virtue, cruelty and vengeance, greed,
craft, and cowardice, — in a word, both the nobility and the
mire of life in turn confront one, in such wise that this
Rougon-Macquart series is like a miniature world.

It has been previously shown that Zola began to study
and plan the series in the middle of 1868, and commenced
his first volume in May, 1869. For some seven or eight
months, during the war of 1870-1871, he had been obliged
to set his work aside, but apart from that break it had occu-
pied the greater part of his attention during all the years
that elapsed until « Le Docteur Pascal " appeared in 1893.
Every year, as a rule, some months were occupied in fram-
ing a new volume, then several were given to the actual
writing of it. In the first instance it was usually necessary
to visit places and people ; and in some cases certain branches
of the chosen subject had to be studied in books, chiefly of a
technical nature. This brings one to the consideration of
a legend which has grown up around Zola and much of his

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOBMER 367

work. It has been assumed, and repeated ad nauseam, by
some critics, that he was a very ignorant man with little or
no real experience of life, one who, aided by a little imagi-
nation, concocted his books out of others,, basing his narra-
tives entirely on printed documents. But that assumption
is fallacious. It was helped on, certainly, by some of Zola's
friends, notably by Paul Alexis, who in his account of the
earlier Eougon-Macquart volumes expatiated at length on
some of the novelist's sources of information.1 This Alexis
did with Zola's sanction, in a spirit of literary honesty, but
his insistence on the subject perverted the judgment of
several critics, in such wise that Zola has been largely de-
scribed as a writer who acquired his information merely by
cramming. That such a view of the man and his work is
erroneous may be easily shown.

He certainly had to study certain subjects in books, and
rely, occasionally, on information given him by friends, but
few writers ever put more actual experience and personal
knowledge into their works. Even his original acquaint-
ance with " society " was more considerable than some
have admitted. In Michelet's drawing-room, which was
the first he frequented, he met, it is true, only serious
men, while Flaubert's was but a superlative Bohemia ; but
in Madame Meurice's salon, to which, whatever his poverty,
he had his entrde during the last years of the Empire, he
found not only republicanism and literary culture, but many
of the graces of life, a high standard of comfort if not lux-
ury, charming women who added a touch of pleasant frivol-

1 The writer must plead guilty to having unintentionally assisted tlie
growth of the legend by insisting often unduly on some of Zola's " quellen,"
m his introductions to the English translations of the novelist's books.

368 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

ity to the serious talk of the older men, and young fellows
in good circumstances, whose minds were more intent on
amusement than politics or literature or art. After the Em-
pire his favourite salon became for a time that of Madame
Charpentier, a lady of culture, whose circle of acquaintance
extended far beyond literary men and their wives. Among
the former, be it noted, were academicians, but there were
also statesmen, — Gambetta, Jules Ferry, and numerous
others, with many people who, in one way or another, repre-
sented the new Republican society. Another drawing-room
of high standing in Republican Paris which Zola frequented,
was that of Madame Menard-Dorian.

Besides, his experiences during the Franco-German war,
when he became secretary to Glais-Bizoin, his participa-
tion in newspaper life, his position as parliamentary cor-
respondent to " La Cloche," as general Paris correspondent
of "Le Semaphore" of Marseilles, made him acquainted
with scores of people, instructed him in a hundred dif-
ferent ways. Further, his dramatic efforts brought him
in contact with the stage; his artistic friendships carried
him among painters, sculptors, and their critics ; his inter-
course with the Goncourts led him occasionally into pecu-
liar company, like that of Nina de Villars, and other
semi-literary women of questionable repute; the dinner
parties with the Goncourts, Flaubert, and Daudet took
him to restaurants and cafds where he elbowed the flash
set; and we know also that the circumstances of his early
manhood had brought him in touch with the poor. Finally,
it is obvious that his actual experience of the emotions was
large : he had known sorrow in many forms ; the pangs that
come from defeat and contumely, the gloom which hope de-

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 369

ferred casts over the spirit, followed by the delight which
arises at an unexpected success. No doubt, when he first
planned "Les Eougon Macquart," in 1868, he was still very
imperfectly equipped for his selected task ; and the fact
that he should have attempted it under such circumstances
shows that he possessed more than the usual amount of con-
fidence that a young man usually places in his powers. But
his experiences during the next four or five years altered
everything, for they greatly increased his equipment and
rendered the successful prosecution of his task a possibility.
Each time he turned to a fresh volume of his series he
began by preparing an gbauche, or as he generally preferred
to say in his letters, a maquette> that is a rough model of the
intended work. The Eougon or the Macquart who was to
figure most prominently in it had been previously chosen ;
he knew what was to be that character's environment, and
the philosophical idea which was to govern the volume.
Taking his pen in hand, he now pictured such secondary
characters as the proposed milieu suggested, and set down
such facts and incidents as might logically ensue from the
chosen characters and their surroundings. Briefly, in a
broad and somewhat vague way, he built up a subject
Those general notes having been placed in a portfolio by
themselves he next took his characters in hand, one by one,
noting their respective histories, ages, health, physical ap-
pearance and nature, disposition, habits, and associations.
That work having been completed was placed in a second
portfolio, and Zola next passed to the question of environ-
ment, collecting a variety of information respecting the
different localities where the scenes of his narrative were
to be laid. Next he started an inquiry into the professions

370 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER

or trades of his characters, and such other technical mat-
ters as might be useful to him, and his notes on those sub-
jects were also gathered together in portfolios. They were
often based on personal observation, but naturally enough
Zola consulted technical works and friends whom he knew
to be well informed on certain points. Their letters and
quotations from the books he had consulted were added to
his personal memoranda.

By the time all this was done his materials were often in
excess of what he required. Nevertheless he based himself
upon them in planning his book. He decided on the num-
ber of chapters the volume should contain, and distributed
the materials among them. This entailed much minute
labour. For instance, he took his first rough draft of his
subject, and distributed the principal incidents mentioned
in it among the proposed chapters ; then he took his notes
on his characters and apportioned them in a similar man-
ner ; in one chapter, for instance, the appearance of some
individual must be described; in another some particular
characteristic must be brought to the front ; in yet another
the changes effected in the same personage by environment
or other causes must be dealt with. Thus borrowing notes
from one and another of his first portfolios, and distributing
them as the narrative and its situations might suggest, Zola
gradually planned his chapters from the first to the last.

All this was still rough work, and before committing a
chapter to paper, Zola re-examined his materials, set them
in what seemed the best order, both with respect to what
he might have said in previous chapters and with respect to
the effect he desired to produce in the new one. Now and
again he would find some note superfluous, and reject it

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 371

altogether; at other times he might transfer it to a sub-
sequent chapter, where the fact, incident, problem, or theory
it enunciated would have a more logical place. Moreover,
while he was writing, it occasionally occurred to him that
some incident he was describing, or some remark he attrib-
uted to one of his characters, would have a certain effect
farther on ; and thereupon he at once made a note of the
circumstance, and, his chapter finished, transferred all such
notes to their proper places. t€ It will be seen/' says Alexis,
from whom these particulars have been borrowed,1 "that
this method of proceeding from the general to the special
is complicated, but logical and safe. A friend of Zola's
(M. Bruneau ?) told me that it reminded him of Wagner's
learned and novel orchestration. I do not know how far
that comparison may be accurate; but it is certain that
Zola's works, when read for the first time by the profane,
must have a little of the disconcerting effect of the Wag-
nerian operas. The first impression is one of great confti-
sion ; the reader is on the point of exclaiming that there is
no sign of composition or rule ; but on penetrating to the
structure of the work you find that everything is mathe-
matical; you discover a deep science, and recognise that
the outcome is really the result of prolonged labour fraught
with strenuous patience and determination."

Edmondo de Amicis, in an appreciation of Zola, included
in his " Eecollections of Paris," mentions that the novelist
showed him a number of notes he had prepared for " L'As-
sommoir," and as Amicis's account of them throws light on
Zola's methods of work, a quotation from his pages may be
added to the particulars taken from Alexis.

1 Alexis, I. c.j pp. 163-166.

372 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOBMER

" On the first sheets of paper were sketches of the personages,
notes about their appearance, temperament, and character. I found
the mirotrs caraderistiques of Gervaise, Coupeau, Mother Cou-
peau, the Lori]leux, the Boches, Goujet, and Madame Lerat. All
the figures of the hook were there. The notes were laconic, like
those of a court registrar, but free like those of a novelist, and
sprinkled with short arguments, such as this : * Born under those
circumstances, educated in that manner, he must conduct himself
in such or such a way.' In one place was the query : ' "What
else can a rascal of this stamp do 1 * ... I was struck by a sketch
of Lantier's character, which was nothing but a string of adjec-
tives, each stronger than the other, such as * gross, sensual, brutal,
egotistical, smutty.' In some places appeared the words : i Use So
and So,1 meaning somebody known to the author. And the whole
was penned in proper sequence in a large, clear handwriting. Then
I saw sketches of places outlined in ink, and as accurate as the
drawings of an engineer. There were a number. The whole
book was drawn : the streets of the district in which the plot
was laid, with their corners and indications of their shops ; the
zigzags which Gervaise made to avoid her creditors, the direction
taken by Nana in her Sunday escapades, the tipplers' peregri-
nations from music-hall to boozing-ken, and the hospital and
slaughter-house, between which one terrible evening the poor
ironing woman went maddened by hunger. Then Marescot's
big house was drawn in minute detail; there was the whole of
the top floor with the landings, the windows, the mute's den, old
Bru's hole — all those dark passages in which one detected the
gasp of death, those walls which resounded as if only empty
paunches were within, those doors through which came an ever-
lasting music of blows and the cries of little ones dying from
starvation. There was also a plan of Gervaise's shop and home,
room by room, with indications of the beds and tables, and here
and there erasures and corrections, which suggested that Zola had

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEE 373

amused himself by the hour, perhaps quite forgetting his story,
immersed in his creation as if it were something he actually re-
membered. * On other pages were notes of various kinds. I recol-
lect two particularly — 'twenty pages of description of such a
thing, twelve pages of description of such a scene, to be divided
into three parts.' One could divine that Zola had the descrip-
tion in his head, formulated before it was set on paper ; that he
could hear it resounding rhythmically within him, like music
which only lacked words. This system of working with the com-
passes, as it were, even at things of the imagination, is not so
rare as some may imagine. Zola, for his part, is a great mechanic.
One can see how his descriptions proceed, symmetrically, spaced
out, separated at times by some padding to give the reader breath'
ing time, and divided into almost equal sections, like that of the
flowers of the Paradou in ' La Faute de FAbbe Mouret/ that of
the thunder storm in * Une Page d'Amour,' and that of the death
of Coupeau in * L'Assommoir.' One might say that for his mind
to work at ease it is necessary Zola should first trace the precise
limits of his work, know exactly at what points he may rest, and
what will be the extent and aspect of his work when printed.
When his materials are too large he cuts them down in order
to get them within those limits ; when they are small he makes
an effort to spin them out to the allotted point. He has an un-
conquerable passion for due proportions which may occasionally
tend to prolixity, but which frequently, by compelling his mind to
dwell on his subject, renders his work deeper, more complete."

Zola's books were written on small, unruled quarto paper,
almost invariably of a very stout quality and highly glazed.
Though his handwriting was large and bold he did not use
a quill like Hugo and others, but the French equivalent of
the J pen, and for some thirty years he invariably employed
the same thick ivory holder, so heavy a one that the present

374 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

writer, who had occasion to use it now and again when Zola
was in England, could not help remarking that the hand
might well feel tired after carrying it to paper for three or
four successive hours. But with Zola it was a question of
habit ; he could hardly write at all unless he had a weight
of nearly three ounces in his hand, and he would he in
quite a state of distress if an urgent letter had to be
written and he lacked his usual implement.

The script of his books was as a rule beautifully clear and
open. On each slip he left a margin about two-thirds of an
inch in width; his lines, on an average one and twenty per
slip, were very straight and regular. The general character
of his handwriting is shown by the fac-simile of a letter
given in this volume, the concluding portion being more
like his book "copy," for on the first page the script is
rather smaller than usual It will be noticed that the
writing is of a distinctly personal character. On consulting
a large number of autographs we have found little like it,
but the disconnected letters and syllables recall the writing
of Boileau, Chateaubriand, Michelet, Jules Janin, and Yictor
Hugo. Some specimens from Hugo's pen seem to indi-
cate that if, instead of a sloping, he had written an upright
hand, it might well have resembled Zola's. The latter, it
may be remarked, never departed from his upright hand,
whereas in autographs of some French authors — -Dumas
p@re and George Sand, for instance — one finds now an up-
right and now a sloping writing, the former being used in
formal letters, the latter in notes to intimate friends, when
the writers were not en repvesentat^onJ but allowed their
feelings full play. In Zola's case the upright hand appears
in the most intimate letters as well as in his " copy " for the

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 375

press, and thus it would seem to have been with him a
natural, not an artificial, writing. One may add, without
asserting any particular faith in graphology, that on apply-
ing its rules, without prejudice, to Zola's writing, the latter
will be found to indicate despotivity, stubbornness, insight,
and orderliness, combined with poetry. Perhaps, then, there
may be some truth in that alleged science.

Here and there in Zola's book "copy" one finds words
crossed out with double lines, and there are some inter-
linear corrections, with occasionally a marginal addition, but
these alterations are surprisingly few. If one judged Zola
by his manuscripts only, one would take him to be a man
who wrote au courant de la plume, without the slightest
effort. But should his manuscripts ever be open to public
inspection * it will be found that they differ largely from his
printed works. His proof corrections were most extensive,
whole sheets of his first proofs were sometimes cut to
pieces, and numerous additional corrections and alterations
appeared in his first revises. It was from second revises
that the translations of his books were usually made, but
further corrections often ensued. One has not yet reached
his novel "Paris," nevertheless one may mention here that
he modified the names of several characters in it at the last
moment, altering Harn to Harth, Duthil to Dutheil, Sagnier
to Sanier, and so forth ; and as, amid the great rush of the

1 He was exceedingly jealous about them. The present writer has had a
few in his possession, on trust, but always had to return them. There may
be some early manuscripts of short stories in Eussia, and a few similar ones in
the possession of French collectors ; but, as a rule, Zola insisted on the return
of his " copy," and nearly the whole of it was in his possession when he died.
As for the first proofs bearing his numerous corrections he repeatedly stated
that almost all of them were destroyed. The writer has some revises con-
taining occasional corrections, usually in the handwriting of Madame Zola.

376 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Dreyfus affair, he forgot to send any warning of what he
had done, the English version appeared with the names
unaltered. It may be added that Zola always welcomed
suggestion and correction. The writer pointed out to him
that two characters in " La Debacle " had the same Christian
names, and that some confusion might arise respecting
them. Forthwith — in this case also at the last moment —
he altered one of the names, delaying the printing of the
book for some days in order that the correction might be
made. Again, on reading the proofs of " Borne " the writer
detected a few topographical errors and called attention to
them. Zola consulted his plans of the city and, finding
he had erred, altered what he had written, at the same
time requesting his translator to point out any further slips
he might notice. Those were trifling matters, and are only
mentioned here as instances of Zola's desire to make his
books as perfect as possible.

Naturally enough, they contain some blunders. For
instance, Zola was in error when, at the outset of "Son
Excellence Eug&ne Bougon," he pictured an official of the
Corps L^gislatif reading the minutes of a previous sitting,
whereas the minutes were always taken as read, for other-
wise hours would have been consumed in their perusal.
He also erred with respect to the betting odds on a horse
in " Nana," which was not surprising, the turf being virtu-
ally terra incognita to him. Again, — and this was a bad
blunder, — in "La Faute de l'Abb6 Mouret,s>1he spoke of
lizards hatching their eggs on the rocks, instead of deposit-
ing them there and leaving them to be hatched by the
warmth of the atmosphere. Critics made much of that
unfortunate slip, which reminds one of a curious mistake

i P. 266L

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 377

made by Alexandra Dumas p&re, who relates in a novel
that the peritonitis (!) of one of his characters was per-
forated by a sword thrust. Dumas certainly wrote rapidly,
at times anyhow; but we must remember that the most
painstaking works often fall short of perfection. M4-
rim^e rewrote "Colomba" sixteen times before he sent it
to the press; nevertheless several slips have been found
in it. Flaubert devoted six years to " Madame Bovary,"
and yet pictured one of its characters paying another exactly
eighty-five francs in two-franc pieces. Briefly, lapses are
to be found in the most carefully written books as well as
in the best-regulated families.1

In Zola's short stories, particularly the earlier ones, his
style often remains light even when it is most ornate. In
the Bougon-Macquart novels, the insistence on a multi-
plicity of details tends to heaviness. Zola was well aware
of it, for as far back as 1884, in conversation with Edmond
de Goncourt, Maupassant, Huysmans, Alexis, and an Eng-
lish friend,2 he said: "I am in the habit of feeling the
pulse of the public, and am compelled to say that I notice
signs of a reaction against us, ... Our books will be
regarded as heavy, and we cannot hide from ourselves that
they are not easy to read. To follow us the reader has to
make a determined mental effort." There is no little truth

1 "We refer farther on to the death or Macquart by spontaneous combus-
tion, in "Le Docteur Pascal."

2 The last named (Mr. George Moore ?) gave, it seems, an account of this
conversation in the ** St. James's Gazette," May 13, 1884 ; and the article
was translated and published in Paris. Not having seen the English text,
the present writer has followed the French version. It appears that the con-
versation took place at the house of Edmond de Goncourt, on an occasion
when the latter read to his friends his preface to " Cherie," in which he bade
farewell to literature.

378 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

in that remark, but one may add that Zola is easier to read
and follow than many of his hrother realists. Fifty pages
of the pyrotechnics of the Groncourts — the labour connected
with which killed the younger one, Jules, as Edmond often
acknowledged — may interest the reader, but after a few
hundred of them one often feels dizzy and fagged. The
brothers Margueritte, who proceeded from the Goncourts,
have sometimes carried the passion for literary fireworks
even further. Zola was quite unable to read their chief
work, " Le D&astre." " I have taken up fchat book a dozen
times/1 he said one day to the present writer, "but on each
occasion, after picking my way through a few pages, I have
had to put it down. There is some trick of style in every
sentence. One is never allowed a moment's rest. After
each of those trials it has seemed to me as if my head
would split."

On another occasion lie remarked: "Nothing changes
more frequently than the fashion in literary style. That
is why so many books, although often not very old, are
quite unreadable. Our decadents insist on polishing and
repolishing their style till their writings become mere jew-
ellery work, which will please nobody a few years hence,
I myself dabbled in such work formerly. When it does not
run to any great length it amuses one, and it may interest
the critic, even please the reader, like something fresh and
novel. But the latter soon sickens of it. He does not want
to be obliged to cudgel his brain at every sentence."

It is generally held by the critics that the descriptions
of Paris appended to each section of " Une Page d' Amour "
are among the finest passages to be found in the Rougon-
Macquart novels. But the present writer after reperusing

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 379

them, is inclined to regard their beauty as being some-
what too artificial, too elaborate. One may well prefer
the panorama of the quays of Paris in "L'CEuvre," the
picture of daybreak at the central markets in " Le Ventre
de Paris," the descente and the rentree of the workers in
"L'Assommoir," and the march of the pitmen in "Germinal."
In the former instances the spectacle which Zola sets before
the reader has a vividness that leaves a lasting impression ;
in the latter you are borne along with the crowds which
the author has conjured forth, you can see and hear their
tramp, the sensation of motion being rendered with a skill
which few writers have ever equalled. Further, as a superb
example of the horrible blended with the pathetic, one may
cite the wonderful description of the death of little Charles,
in "Le Docteur Pascal."

"Germinal," " L'Assommoir," "La D4Mcle," and "La
Terre " are ranked as the four pillars of the Rougon-Mac-
quart series. From a purely literary standpoint the first
is superior to the second, because it contains less slang.
The use of slang in dialogue is often advisable, even neces-
sary ; but in narrative and descriptive passages it is difficult
to defend it unless the story be told in the first person by
one who habitually speaks slang. Zola had some such idea
in writing " L'Assommoir " (which he pictured as a book
about the people by one of them), but shrank from carry-
ing it to its logical conclusion, and the result, in a literary
sense, was not quite pleasing.1 However, both ." Germinal "

1 In writing " I/ Assommoir " Zola did not merely consult the existing slang
dictionaries. The scene of the story was laid at half an hour's walk from
his own home. He prowled the whole neighbourhood for weeks, observing
and listening ; and before he set pen to paper he prepared a little slang lexicon,
for his own. use, one which may some day be published. He kept this com-

380 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

and * L'Assommoir " are living books, the greatest their
author ever penned.

Passing to " La D^bScle," this is certainly a wonderfully
truthful panorama of war and its horrors, though the
psychology of several of its characters is open to criticism.
Too many of them lack robustness ; they seem too full of
nerves to be regarded as typical. In the case of Maurice,
a mere degenerate, the picture is accurate enough; but
assuredly many feelings which JSola and others have attrib- -
uted to soldiers are little known in actual war. The ma-
jority of military men are far less sensitive than some have
said, and incident often follows incident so rapidly in real
battle that there is no time for thought or emotion at all.
* La Terre M also has faults, the outcome of Zola's reforming
purpose, which led him to assemble too many black charac-
ters within a small circle; had they been more dispersed
among people of an average kind the effect would have
been more lifelike. In <( Nairn" the general blackness of
the characters does not seem out of place, for only men and
women of a sorry sort gravitate around a harlot A few
more average characters in " La Terre/' or, rather, more
prominence given to some who scarcely appear in its pages
would have greatly improved the book. Here, however,
as in " Pot-Bouille," Zola, carried away by his feelings, over-
looked that doctrine of average truth, of which Ste.-Beuve
had reminded him apropos of " Thdrkse Raquin." He then
admitted that he had piled on the agony unduly, and he
made the same mistake in two or three volumes of " Les

pilation at his elbow while he was writing, and every time he "borrowed from it
a word or expression he marked the latter with a "blue pencil, iu order to avoid
too frequent a repetition of the same term.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEB 381

Bougon-Macqnart/' But when all is said "La Terre" re-
mains one of Ms strongest and most truthful books.1

The savage brutishness of the chief characters in the
work may well seem impossible to the ignorant; but al-
though in reading "La Terre" one should always bear in
mind that Zola never pretended that all peasants were like
those in his grim picture, it is certain that his personages,
individually, are accurately drawn. Awful is the record of
parricides, matricides, fratricides, common murders, murder-
ous assaults, rapes, and offences of inferior degree perpe-
trated in rural France. And earth hunger, disputes about
property, boundaries, inheritances, and so forth, will be found
at the bottom of the great majority of cases. But "La
Terre" does not deal exclusively with the criminal side of
peasant life. It pictures many other features : it describes
the drawbacks of the small-holdings system, shows agri-
culture hampered by the extreme subdivision of the soil,
traces the march of revolutionary and socialist principles
among those who till it; sketching, too, on the way, the
treatment which the imperial regime accorded to the
peasantry.

There is not space here to pass all the Bougon-Macquart
volumes in review from a critical point of view. One may
say, however, that generally, though not invariably, those
dealing with a multiplicity of characters are superior to
those in which Zola analyses the feelings and actions of a
few. It is acknowledged he excelled in portraying the

i A writer in the " Athenaeum " [No. 3911, October 11, 1902], when review-
ing Miss Betham-Edwards's " East of Paris," pointed out that in a previous
work, "France of To-day," 1892, she had denounced "La Terre/' and de-
clared it to he " crushingly refuted "; whereas ten years later she admitted
that it was "not without foundation on fact.11

282 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER

" crowd." Structural faults are to be found in various vol-
umes. For instance, the long idyll of Silv&re and Miette
interrupts the narrative of " La Fortune des Rougon " un-
duly ; and the poetical Paradou portion of " La Faute de
I'AbM Mouret" is hardly compatible with the realism of
the opening and concluding chapters. Then " Le R§ve " is
almost out of place in the series, for though the Naturalist
writer must take account of the dreamy aspirations and im-
aginings of certain hearts and minds, it is perhaps exces-
sive to picture those dreams fulfilled in actual happenings.
Again, there is some artificiality in " Une Page d'Amour/'
Innumerable as are the love intrigues in French society
one may well doubt if an analysis of any would yield the
psychology of Zola's work. " La Cui£e," on the other hand,
within the limitations imposed on the author by circum-
stances and personal knowledge, is a sound piece of work,
quite irrespective of the poetical intentions which some
critics have ascribed to it. Passing to such volumes as " La
Conqu6te de Plassans," " Le Ventre de Paris," and " Son Ex-
cellence," one finds that though they may be minor works
they are very near to life and historical truth. Then
" Nana," a great book from the social standpoint, is almost
one in the literary sense also. But while freely admitting
the greatness of " L'Assommoir " and " Germinal,'* the vol-
ume which particularly appeals to the present writer is rt Le
Docteur Pascal," perhaps because Zola therein expounds and
defends his theory of life. The love of uncle and niece,
pictured in this book, may offend the feelings of English
and American Protestants, but they ought to remember that
in Catholic countries marriages often take place between
people connected by that tie of relationship. The writer,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEHEE 383

for Ms part, has nothing whatever to say against them from
the moral standpoint ; he deprecates them, even, as he dep-
recates all marriages between relations, on physiological
grounds. But the affections bow neither to legal enact-
ments nor to scientific rules ; love, as we are all aware, has
no master ; and if, therefore, one accept the position of Dr.
Pascal and his niece Glotilde, Zola's work will he found one
of absorbing interest for the thinking mind. True, it is dis-
figured by an error which the reader must set aside : the
death of the old drunkard Macquart by spontaneous com-
bustion, for scientists have declared such a death to be
impossible. Zola, however, long before writing "Le Doc-
teur Pascal/' had found a case of the kind recorded in a
scientific work ; and for years, as several of his letters and
utterances show, he had nursed the idea of bringing it into
his final volume. Nobody then warned him of his error,
but directly his book appeared several scientists protested
that, whatever might be the effects of alcoholism, it could
not lead to a death like Macquart's. That episode, then,
must be dismissed, but the bulk of the book remains, with
its terrible lessons, its pages of vivid and merciless analysis,
its pictures of the evils of life relieved by a glowing faith
in nature's power for good, an optimism which nothing dis-
mays, which points to the dawn of a brighter day for
humanity, whatever may be its present condition. And
from the purely literary standpoint * Le Docteur Pascal " is
admirable. Its style is perfect. The descriptive and the
analytical passages are replete with beauty, depth, and force
of expression. Poetry is here so thoroughly welded with
prose that one cannot object to it as one may in some other
volumes, such, for instance, as " Tine Page d' Amour," where

384 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOBMER

it seems merely a beautiful excrescence. The psychology of
the characters in "Le Docteur Pascal3' is also good. In
point of fact, no doubt, this was a long meditated work.
Almost from the time when Zola began his series — at least
as soon as the Empire had fallen — he pictured the finale
ahead of him, he thought of it during all the years when he
was writing the intervening volumes, he gradually planned
and perfected it in his mind long before he actually wrote
it It is not a book for the vulgar, who come and go, heed-
less of the problems, possibilities, and purposes of life ; but
though the love of Pascal and Clotilde may offend moral
prejudices, though from the standpoint of scientific accuracy
the narrative may be disfigured by the error of Macquart's
death, we hold this to be the noblest, the most convincing,
the most consoling book that Zola ever wrote* Such an
opinion, however, may not find much acceptance in England
and America where the bias in favour of revealed religion is
so strong.

Without insisting further on the merits or demerits of
particular volumes, if we glance at the series as a whole
we shall find it to be an unexampled achievement. It is
more self-contained than " La Com^die Humaine," in writing
which Balzac really had no definite plan. As M. Chaumi6,
French Minister of Public Instruction, has said : " In Zola's
work one finds all society . . . with the milieux in which
it displays its activity, the men composing it, the passions
which stir and sway them, their vices, sorrows, and mis-
eries, the sufferings too of the disinherited, — the whole
forming so striking and so true a picture that after con-
templating it those with the poorest like those with the
keenest sight must realise the necessity of remedying those

<-. ' ! > ' "' ,",

Maitre Labor!

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOKMER 385

sufferings, contending against those vices, and assuaging
those sorrows* . . . Thus, what might have been only an
admirable literary achievement, an inestimable document
on a period, an ever-living picture of a given time . . .
acquires greater grandeur, is insured of yet loftier glory,
by the generous spirit which inspired it."1

Further, though it has been suggested here that some ex-
aggeration and some flaws may appear in the psychology of
certain individual characters, the series as a whole responds to
Taine's definition of literature as " a living psychology." As
M. Paul Bourget has said : " Zola regarded the novel as a
kind of hypothetical experiment, attempted on positive
bases, the first condition for success being that the bases
should be accurate and the hypothesis logical. When the
hour of justice strikes for that unwearying toiler people
will recognise what immense preliminary toil and study lay
beneath each of his books. They will also discern his un-
wavering purpose to inquire fully into the condition of
contemporary France, to carry his inquiry as far as possible
in order to set the social problem completely and accu-
rately before one. His right to depict all reality (la rdaliU
totale), which is that of every sociologist, even of every his-
torian, will not be disputed then."

It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the
Eougon-Macquart novels should be studied, whenever pos-
sible, in the original French, and not in translations. There
have been many versions of the books in the English lan-
guage ; the present writer has made himself responsible for
not a few of them ; and certainly translations are in a meas-
ure useful, for as yet a knowledge of foreign languages is

1 Funeral oration on Zola.
25

386 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

limited to a minority of the reading public. Besides, it is
usually possible to transmit in a translation, at least in
essential particulars, the lesson which a book is intended
to convey* But at the same time much is lost, and in a
good many instances translations which have even taken
rank as literature do not adequately represent their origi-
nals. At the present day, with respect to contemporary
works, excellence in translation is scarcely to be obtained,
for commercial conditions militate against it. An author
may give years to the writing of a book, whereas the Eng-
lish translator is compelled to prepare his version in a few
months, at times even in a few weeks, for it is often stipu-
lated by the publisher that the translation must appear at
the same time as the original It may be necessary also
for the English translator to attend to some serial publica-
tion, and to provide for copyright in America, with the re-
sult that the work has to be done hastily, in a rough and
ready manner. Again, the prices paid for translations are
usually so low that few men of real ability are willing to
undertake them. The writer, though he has had great ex-
perience in these matters, can suggest no remedy, for un-
doubtedly the commercial as well as the literary side of the
question has to be considered, and even if a translator, re-
gardless of gain, were to bestow on his work all the time
and care it might deserve, the chances would be that no
publisher would look at it, for the market would be gone —
so swiftly do even very able books perish in these modern
days.

With respect to the writer's own work, as translator or
as editor of various English versions of Zola's novels, he is
fully aware of its many imperfections, due in some in-

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 387

stances to the time limit imposed on Mm, and in others
to pecuniary and similar considerations. Again, British
Pharisaism being what it is he had never been able to
give an absolutely complete version of any of Zola's books.
Still he has always tried to preserve the spirit of the origi-
nal, even when he has been compelled to throw off his
"copy" at express speed. And in any case his versions,
like those of others, will at least have served the purpose of
making most of Zola's views known to thousands who are
unable to read French.

But to properly appreciate and judge any one of the works
of the great novelist it must be read in the original and
in its entirety. That demands a good sound knowledge of
French. Nothing has amazed the writer more than to re-
ceive from time to time during the last twelve years a note
to this effect : " Dear Sir, — I am learning French, and in
order to gain a better knowledge of it, I think of trying to
read one of Zola's books with the help of a dictionary.
Which volume would you recommend me to try ? "Which
is an easy one?" Such an idea is, of course, ludicrous.
Zola's style is not particularly involved, his vocabulary if
large is not recondite, but to understand him properly the
reader must possess more than a mere smattering of French.
In some volumes, too, he deals with technical subjects, while
in others he occasionally uses slang or purely Parisian ex-
pressions, in which cases dictionaries are of very little help.
The present writer found it necessary to study certain sub-
jects carefully before attempting to translate some of Zola's
volumes : for it was only by doing so that he could avoid
mistakes. For instance, the English version of " Travail "
necessitated the perusal of several text-books on metallurgy,

388 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

and a visit to some large English steel works. An Ameri-
can version of the same hook was made by a person who
did not take that precaution, with the result that it liter-
ally bristled with technical errors. When one considers the
vast range of Zola's subjects, it must he obvious that the
work of translating his books amounts to little less than a
liberal education. The writer must confess that for his part
he learnt a great deal by the work, so that if he conferred
no particular advantage on his readers he at least benefited
himself.

In previous chapters some mention has been made of
Zola's repeated efforts as a playwright, and as after 1893
he only penned some libretti for the music of his friend,
M. Bruneau, one may here add a few words respecting his
plays. None of those which he wrote without assistance
proved a success, though he often claimed that some of the
public were favourable to " Le Bouton de Rose," which, said
he, was damned mainly by the critics. On the other hand the
stage-craft of M. Busnach made a success of " L'Assommoir "
and of one or two other adaptations. In all probability the
correct view to take of Zola's writings for and about the
French stage is that their influence, however considerable,
was chiefly indirect. Realism has come to dramatic litera-
ture — on which the novel always reacts — but the younger
French dramatists rightly regard M. Henri Becque as their
more immediate sponsor. At the same time several things
that Zola desired to see have come to pass ; a good many of
his philosophical and social ideas are to be found in the con-
temporary French drama. Now and again they appear some-
what conspicuously, as in M. Octave Mirbeau's play "Les
Mauvais Bergers," and in some of the works of M. Brieux.

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 389

Again, M. Gustave Charpentier's famous roman musical,
" Louise," produced in 1900, was distinctly Zolaesque in its
inspiration; one of its chief features, the frequent evocation
of Paris, proceeding directly from "Une Page d* Amour.**
Further Zola's influence was at times destructive. Soon
after " La Terre " had "been published in Paris the Com^die
Fran§aise revived George Sand's peasant-play "Francois le
Champi," which since its first production in 1849 had been
frequently played with success at the Ode*on Theatre. But
the revival at the Comddie proved a complete failure, the
play which had lived for nearly forty years being slain in
a few nights. Originally regarded as ultra-realistic, it ap-
peared quite insipid to the generation which had just perused
"La Terre." To sum up, even as the influence of Balzac
(though he wrote little for the stage) was apparent in
dramatic productions from 1850 to 1870, something similar
though, perhaps, less pronounced may be observed with re-
spect to the more recent influence of Zola. He, by the way,
was once asked his opinion of the influence of Ibsen on the
French stage, and of Tolstoi and other Russians on the
French novel, and he replied that he did not attach much
importance to the question, for he held that the ideas which
were supposed to rain on Paris from the North were In real-
ity French ones, which had been disseminated by French
writers, and had come back to their place of origin, occa-
sionally crystallised or intensified by the more sombre im-
agination of Scandinavian and Russian minds.

THE MAN— HIS LIFE DRAMA — A NEW
DEPAETUEE.

1893-1897

Zola* 3 personal appearance — A palmist's reading of his hand — Some of hia
petty manias and superstitions — His powers of observation. — His mem-
ory — Characteristics of his intellect — His daily life — His orderliness

— His ** confession " — The drama of his life — A childless home — Birth
of ah illegitimate daughter and son — Some great men and the moral law

— Some eminent women and the popular standard of morality — The
alleged " new Zola" — Sermonising novels — " L'Attaque du Moulin "
as an opera — The trilogy of " Lourdes," ** Borne,*' and "Paris " — Faith,
hope, and charity to he replaced by fruitfulness, work, truth, and justice

— Attacks on *' Lourdes " — Arrest of Dreyfus — Zola, his book ** Borne,"
and Pope I*eo XIII. — His stay in the Eternal City — He visits hia
Italian relatives — Difficulties of writing ''Rome" — Its publication —
Charges of plagiarism and Zola's answer — His volume ** Kouvelle Cam-
pagne " — His opinion of a clairvoyant* — His first defence of the Jews.

Isr middle age Zola was about five feet seven inches high.
His trunk was short, his legs being rather long for a man
of the stature indicated, but he had a broad and prominent
chest, and his shoulders were well set. His left foot was
sensibly shorter than the right, his instep was very arched.
He had small wrists, but large though shapely hands with
small round nails. According to Dr. Edouard Toulouse I all
the diameters of his skull were distinctly above the average,
but his brain was never weighed, for at the time of his death

1 *' Unquote Meclico-Psychologique sur les Bapports de la Superiority Intel-
lectuelle avec la NeVropathie. Introduction generale. J§mile Zola," by Dr.
& Toulouse, Paris, 1896.

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOBMER 391

Ms friends resisted applications made to them by certain
scientists to whom, it seems, Zola himself had almost prom-
ised that his remains would be at their disposal.

Being very short-sighted, he usually wore glasses, seen
though which his eyes seemed deep and somewhat stern;
but in intimacy they softened and sparkled freely. At one
period he wore his hair short, at another long, and according
to these variations his forehead seemed to change, assuming
at one time an appearance of abnormal height. His lips were
somewhat thick and sensual, inclined to pout. He had large
ears, and heard better with the left than with the right.
For music, in spite of his long association with M. Bruneau,
the composer, he really had little ear, though he possessed a
keen sense of rhythm. On looking at him the feature that
most struck one was certainly his nose, which had a gradu-
ally broadening, lobulated tip. Edmond de Goncourt declared
that Zola's physiognomy was summed up in this somewhat
peculiar nasal organ,1 which, he jestingly remarked, resem-
bled the muzzle of a sporting dog, and assumed all sorts of
expressions — indicating, in turn, approval, condemnation,
wonder, amusement, sadness, or whatever else might be its
owner's opinion or mood. While making all allowance for
humoristic exaggeration, there was certainly some truth in
Goncourt's words.2

Zola's hands, to which reference has been made above, were
examined on one occasion by a " palmist " ; and for the ben-
efit of those who believe in chiromancy one may mention
that the sibyl's pronouncement was to this effect: "A great

* "Journal des Goncourt," Yol. VI, p. 254.

2 According to Dr. Toulouse, Zola was less keen than most people in de-
tecting odours, but he had a " smell memory" and could remember objects
by their scent

392 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

change at forty years of age ; a long life ; a sudden death ;
fond of family life and travelling ; proficient in art and par-
tial to military music ; confident in the future but having
little confidence in himself personally; a large heart but
more philanthropically inclined towards collectivities than
towards individuals; possessed of a deep sense of justice,
the slightest injustice exasperating him ; admiring audacity,
strength, and authority while fond of liberty for himself ;
influenced more by Ms mind than by sensual passion at the
outset of his love affairs, but afterwards extremely ardent." l
The lack of self-confidence indicated by the palmist was
confirmed by Zola to Dr, Toulouse, who found that the nov-
elist's doubt of himself was excessive and unreasonable.
He frequently feared that he might be unable to accom-
plish his daily task, finish the book he had begun, or con-
clude the speech he was delivering. At one period, before
lie could go to bed he had to satisfy a peculiar craving to
touch and retouch certain articles of furniture, open and
reopen certain drawers, Arithmomania pursued him : he was
for ever counting the gas lamps in one or another street, and
the number of the houses. He long believed multiples of
three to be of good augury, but later, as he told Goncourt,
multiples of seven inspired him with most confidence.
Moreover, he was so susceptible to thunder and lightning
that whenever a storm burst over M&lan all the shutters
had to be closed and all the lamps lighted, after which he
would often bandage his eyes with a handkerchief. Even
when, there was no storm and he found himself in absolute
darkness, he was occasionally troubled by what seemed to
be luminous phenomena.

i Published in 1893.

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 393

A dreadful idea came to Mm now and then : it was that
his heart had moved into his arm or his thigh, and that he
could feel it beating there. It must be said, too, that he
was most sensitive to physical pain1 and extremely sub-
ject to emotion, which brought on attacks of a form of
angina from which he suffered, periodically, over a period of
thirty years. The insults levelled at him by unscrupulous
journalists, as much with respect to the alleged obscenity of
his writings as to his share in the Dreyfus case, constantly
led to such attacks, but his mind being always superior
to his body, he never swerved from what he regarded as
his duty — the enunciation of inconvenient truths — even
though he knew he would be savagely denounced for it
and that his ailment would necessarily return. Briefly, as
Dr. Toulouse has said, Ms emotivite, although morbid,
always left his mind in a state of perfect lucidity and equi-
librium. To the psychologist and the physician his ex-
ample demonstrated, in the most unimpeachable manner,
the authority of the mind over the body, the power of the.
will over disease.

His powers of observation were exceptionally keen. DT.
Toulouse, in the course of an experiment he made with
him, placed a photograph of an idiot child before his eyes
for a few moments. He immediately noticed certain ana-
tomical peculiarities which as a rule would only strike
a medical man, and he noticed them although they were
scarcely perceptible in the photograph, which had greatly

1 He showed great sensitiveness to all cutaneous impressions. He conld
not wear clothes in any degree tight, or lie in bed "tucked in." As a rule
he slept for seven hours, and on awaking he constantly complained of pains
in one and another part of the body, this being a symptom common among
those who are liable to nervous affections.

394 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

faded. But, adds Dr. Toulouse, as soon as Zola ceased
to observe consciously, his attention flagged, and at times
lie did not even recognise acquaintances whom he met in
the street "They think," he said to the doctor, "that
when I forget to acknowledge them I am absorbed in
deep meditation about my next novel, but as a matter of
fact I am not thinking of anything/' It was the same
with his memory. When he wished to remember any ob-
ject or scene, the details became printed on his mind as
clearly and fully as if they had been photographed. But
unless he made a voluntary effort, his memory did not serve
him. When he was President de la Soci<5t6 des Gens de
Lettres three months elapsed before he could repeat the
names of the twenty-four members of the committee. If
he had been as deeply interested in those gentlemen as he
was in the facts he collected for his books, he would cer-
tainly have recalled their names at once.

Some novelists note everything around them, — people,
places, and occurrences, — and store them up for subsequent
use in one or another book ; but that was not Zola's system.
If he were writing about peasants, other matters scarcely
interested him. You might have told him something curi-
ous about soldiers or financiers, he would have given it
little heed. He isolated his mind, as it were, concen-
trated it entirely on the subject he had in hand. Moreover,
his imagination was as systematic as his memory. As
stated in a previous chapter, he first decided on the gen-
eral ideas he would illustrate; then, by deduction, he im-
agined the characters likely to illustrate those ideas. A
thousand concrete facts thereupon arose in his mind,
grouped themselves in his system, and imparted life to

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 395

his philosophical abstractions. That faculty, that power of
assembling affinitive images, tending to a logical end, was
preponderant in Zola. By its means the psychical processus
is canalised, mental effort and waste are diminished, and
the will is able to act in a well-defined manner. In Zola
such power was developed to the highest degree, and therein
will be found the reason of his intellectual superiority.
It links him with all the great creators possessed of syste-
matic minds, the men who have gone, not groping darkly,
but with patient effort and in full light, towards their objects.
Hugo and Balzac showed by their writings that their brains
were organised in the same manner. The quick and incon-
siderate mind, so unequal in its inspirations, which is often
attributed to artists, does not seem compatible with great
creative power, the latter acting in a much more uniform
manner. Zola's particular mentality explains both his life
and his work. He systematised in literature the realistic
tendencies of the philosophy of Comte and Taine ; and he
carried that systematisation to its farthest limit by creating
the novel of complete observation (le roman d* observation
integrale), in which he studied heredity under all its as-
pects, recoiling from no audacity either of observation or
of expression.

By mere reasoning, adds Dr, Toulouse, whom we still fol-
low,1 Zola's systematic mind traced for itself a course of
action which was often at variance with his instincts, yet
he followed it perseveringly, sustained merely by his con-
ception of duty. His tendency to gout and corpulence
(which last he overcame by sheer determination) must

1 Not in the work previously quoted, but in a paper lie wrote after Zola's
death ("Le Temps," Octoter, 1902).

396 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

have predisposed him to laziness, but lie mastered any
such inclination by compelling himself to do a certain
amount of work every day. As a rule he then wrote
quite sufficient "copy" to form three pages of one of his
books, in addition to occasional newspaper articles. He
also carried on an extensive correspondence, yet the only
time when he had recourse to secretarial help was the
period of the Dreyfus case. Nulla dies sine linea was a
motto he had adopted early in life, and lest it should be
forgotten it was graven in letters of gold over the fireplace
of his large study at M£dan, where most of his books were
written.

At M^dan he rose at eight o'clock, went for an hour's
stroll, seating himself at his writing table at nine and writ-
ing till one o'clock, usually on an empty stomach, for after
he had resolved to conquer his corpulence his first meal
consisted generally of a mere crust of bread, though now
and again he might partake of a couple of eggs "on the
plate," which to please him had to be cooked to a nicety. At
one o'clock he lunched; and then, perhaps, came a short
nap, after which he either read the papers or worked at
an article or went out walking, cycling, or boating. If he
were at home in the afternoon, he drank a cup of tea, and
this carried him on till dinner, which was served at half-
past seven. Afterwards, if friends were staying with him,
there might be a game of billiards or a quiet chat over
another cup of tea. For some years he drank nothing at
all with his meals, at which he preferred his fish fried and
his meat grilled; but later he allowed himself a glass of
water, and on a hot afternoon, if he were thirsty, he now
and then indulged in a little white wine and eau de Seltz.

1SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 397

Red wine lie did not touch, from 1887 till the time of Ms
death ; but occasionally, after a meal or in the evening, he
treated himself to a thimbleful of old cognac or some liqueur.
This happened perhaps once a week, not more frequently,
so it will be seen that he was almost a total abstainer.

Both at Mddan and in Paris (unless he were spending
the evening in society or at a theatre) Zola retired to his
bedroom between ten and eleven o'clock, but he generally
remained reading there for some hours before he actu-
ally went to bed. His mornings in Paris like those at
M6dan were given to writing; and as he could not boat
or conveniently cycle in the metropolis, his afternoon out-
ings resolved themselves into visits or strolls to sundry
places which he might wish to describe in some forthcom-
ing book. Six o'clock in the evening was the hour usually
appointed for receiving newspaper interviewers or those
who brought him letters of introduction. His Sundays
were spent much like his week-days, except that instead of
working at a book he then often gave the morning to letter-
writing. Glancing through a large collection of his letters
we find some scores of them written on one and another
Sunday. These particulars will show the general orderli-
ness of his life, which was further exemplified by his ex-
tremely tidy habits, the regularity with which he changed
Ms clothes directly he came home, substituting a loose flan-
nel shirt, a working jacket, and slippers for his linen, his
black coat, and his boots. And he never left the slightest
litter of papers in his workroom; such documents as he
might be using were set out tidily on various tables ; the
newspapers he read were always neatly folded directly he
had finished perusing them ; the very string of the parcels

398 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

lie received was at once rolled up and put aside in a drawer ;
he liked to have everything spick and span, and it was he
himself who attended to virtually all the menage of his
Parisian and country workrooms.

About 1893 a "confession" of the drawing-room order
was extracted from Zola, and on consulting it one finds
him stating that his favourite colour (like Daudet's) was
red and his favourite flower the rose, though he also had
a taste for peonies and dahlias, which he grew in profusion
at M^dan, Contrary to Daudet, who expressed a liking for
no animals or birds whatever, he declared that he liked
them all Work, he wrote, was his favourite occupation,
while his dream of happiness was to do nothing. The
quality he preferred in man was kind-heartedness, in woman
tenderness* His favourite authors, painters, and composers
were those who saw and expressed things clearly. His
favourite heroes and heroines in fiction were those who
were not heroes or heroines ; in real life, those who earned
their bread. The greatest misfortune he knew was to re-
main in doubt respecting anything ; the historical characters
he most despised were traitors ; the gift he most desired to
possess was eloquence ; and the way he would like to die
was "suddenly."

Of one longing which possessed Zola for several years

there is no mention in the " confession " ; neither is it indi-

cated in Dr. Toulouse's "Enqu§te." But its nature and its
consequences must be stated here. Eminent writers have
more than once laid down the rule that if in writing an
account of any living individual it is best to preserve reti-
cence and avoid everything offensive, on the other hand it
is essential that the biographer of one who is dead and gone

llMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER 399

should tell the truth respecting him. Of course it may
prove advisable, and indeed justice itself may require, that
one should he kind to his virtues and a little blind to his
faults, for the former may be many and exemplary, and the
latter few and unimportant ; but if one were to ignore the
last completely a very erroneous impression would be con-
veyed, the suppressio veri being equivalent to the suggestio
falsi. Nevertheless in this present age, when so many
agree to shun the truth because it offends the superfine
delicacy of their degenerate natures, one is constantly con-
fronted by so-called biographies of eminent men, and notable
women also, in which a variety of facts are suppressed, the
world at large being taught to look at these people through
deceptive glasses which show them perfect, whereas, in
reality, their flaws were often great. At times, indeed, one
is invited to contemplate such beings as can never have
existed, and though the falsity of the picture may merely irri-
tate the scholar, it utterly misleads the uninitiated, tending
to absolutely erroneous conceptions and adding yet another
lie to the many on which present-day society is based.

In the case of Zola, he was such an impassioned servant
of truth that to conceal the truth concerning him, to paint
him in false colours, would be doing him a wrong. Besides,
he never claimed that he was perfect, he knew that he was
very human. Further, the facts which must now be men-
tioned were written about more or less accurately, but openly,
in several Parisian newspapers at the time of his death ;
the present writer also had occasion to refer to them in
a newspaper article ; and some American journals likewise
gave them currency. Thus the omission of all mention of
them here would be as ridiculous as misleading. At the

400 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

same time it is quite unnecessary to go beyond the essential
facts, which may be recounted with comparative brevity.

When Zola married, about the time he began his Rougon-
Macquart novels, he certainly looked forward to a life of
unalloyed happiness. But though he achieved celebrity
and became possessed of comparative wealth, though his
wife was all love and devotion, there remained a great void
in his existence. He had no child, and the desire for pa-
ternity was strong within him. One can trace it through
many of his books, and there is no doubt whatever that
it became a fixed idea with him, was responsible for some of
his petty superstitions, and entered even into that dread of
death which the loss of his mother and of his friend Flau-
bert at one time suggested. He would die and would leave
no posterity. Of what value was life, then ? He had always
regarded transmission as being its first essential function ;
and it tortured him at times to think that he was famous,
that he was rich, and that he would leave no offspring
behind him.

It may be said that this happens to many men ; that some
become more or less reconciled to it ; that some go, quietly
grieving, to their graves. Others, however, are egotistical
enough to experience no desire for paternity. There are
also instances of men to whom an extreme culture imparts a
kind of self-sufficingness : for example, all the unmarried
philosophers, from those of Greece to those of our own
times. Even among the great men who have married one
will find many unblessed with offspring. Scientists have
occasionally tried to explain this in one way or another, but
no explanation seems to be of general applicability. In that
connection one must remember that there have also been

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 401

many men, distinguished by the exceptional activity of their
minds, who have left large families. Occasionally they may
have survived their children, as in the case of that untiring
worker, Victor Hugo, but none the less, even if they have had
the grief of losing both sons and daughters, they have known
the happiness of paternity.

That a craving for such happiness should have become in-
tense in a man like Zola, with all the emotional tendencies
of his temperament, was natural, perhaps fatal. It was
one of the sufferings that made him seek a refuge in steady,
all-absorbing work, and for years, by immersing himself in
his task, he contrived to dull his pain and silence all the
suggestions of a rebellious nature. Goncourt, one day after
returning from a visit to M6dan, jotted down in his diary
some remarks about the gloom, the emptiness of that spacious
abode. There were plenty of dogs, but there were no chil-
dren, and children were necessary to such a home. It is
evident that Goncourt with his keen penetration had divined
the secret grief of its master and mistress. But years rolled
on, and hopes first fondly cherished, then clung to with de-
spairing tenacity, remained unfulfilled. The moralist will
say undoubtedly that resignation was the one right course,
but human nature seldom resigns itself willingly to any-
thing, and certainly Zola's nature was not one to do so.
As he approached his fiftieth year it began to assert itself,
as Goncourt shows us in another passage of his " Journal " ;
and then, after long years of battling, however strong the
spirit might still be, the flesh finally triumphed over it.

It is unnecessary to review what the Bible and Buckstone,
Taylor and Kent, Montesquieu and Potier have to say re-
specting the violation of the marriage vow, and the distinc-

402 tMUJE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE

tions which may be drawn between the action of husband and
of wife. Nor need there be any defence on the lines of the
tMorie du d$u% morale* as interpreted by Nisard* One
may allow that there is strictly only one moral law for both
sexes and for all stations in life, royal as well as plebeian.
At the same time one is entitled to indicate whatever ex-
tenuating circumstances may exist One may think of the
position of Thomas and Jane Carlyle, as enunciated by
the supporters of the former, and then picture a very dif-
ferent sequel, for in Zola's case a time came when he was
carried away from the path of strict duty, and in the result
a child was born to him, a daughter called Denise. Later
came the birth of a son, called Jacques. An echo of what
happened — the tempestuous passion of a man of ripe years
for m young woman — resounded through the pages of
<f Le Docteur Pascal/' while w F&sondiW published much
later, revealed many of the sufferings, much of the yearning,
that had led to this crisis in Zola's life.

Those who are perfect may now throw stones. Many
who are not will, of course, do so, regardless of permission,
and with the greater alacrity as the dead man cannot answer
them. But he was forgiven long ago by the one person
who was entitled to complain. There was much suffering,
much unhappiness, of which the world heard nothing, but
at last her broad nobility of mind rose above the personal
wrong and the common prejudice, and in these later days
she has transferred much of the devotion with which she
encompassed her husband to the children whose birth fol-
lowed the crisis which, at one time, threatened to sweep
the home away.

Let us remember, too, that the case of Zola was in no wise

ZOLA, NOYELIST AND EEFOBMEE 403

exceptional Our great men have to be taken with their
faults as with their virtues. Englishmen will remember
that Nelson, Wellington, and Lord Melbourne violated the
popular standard of morality, and yet rendered great ser-
vices to their country. Americans will remember the same
of Franklin, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay. A recent
President of the United States was not above reproach when
he was elected to the supreme magistracy. There is an
English statesman of commanding abilities, on one page of
whose career a blot appears and who for that reason has
been pursued with unrelenting hatred by canting Pharisees

those to whom one owes the monstrous and inhuman

doctrine that an error in a man's life must never be for-
given, that if he stumble but once he must always remain
damned* With their narrow bigotry those people arrogate
to themselves a greater righteousness than that of the
Christ whose precepts they pretend to follow. To love one
another, to forget and to forgive, are no maxims of theirs.
Though the name of the Deity is so constantly on their lips,
they really seem to be men after the devil's own heart, for
they play the part of his imps, ever intent on persecution.

If the world were to reject all the great men who have
erred, would not the pantheons of the nations be well-nigh
empty? If it were to reject the works of every writer
whose life was not absolutely immaculate, what literature
would be left? Masterpieces of the human mind, writings
that have wrought an infinity of good, would be cast aside.
One may remind the reader that a good many English
authors even of that age of specious respectability, the Vic-
torian era, were by no means perfect in their private lives.
In France, no doubt, more laxity has prevailed. Take that

404 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOEMEE

champion of Christianity, Chateaubriand, and remember the
many Kaisont of his married life ; take that great deist,
Victor Hugo, also a married man, and with no such excuse
as Chateaubriand and Zola may have had, and remember his
long connection with Madame Juliette Drouet* And as ex-
amples of moral laxity among men outside the matrimonial
pale, take Alfred de Musset and both the Dumas, partic-
ularly the elder. Old Parisians, like the writer, will re-
member the day in or about 1869 when even the
boulevards were scandalised by the sight which confronted
one and all in the windows of every shop where photographs
were sold. There was the portrait of the prince of roman-
cers with Adah Isaacs Menken, the circus-rider, seated, in
her fleshings, on his knees, her arms cast lovingly about his
neck. Happily in the afternoon the son appeared upon the
scene and carried off all such photographs that he could
find, and thereupon Paris* which had been laughing a porno-
graphic laugh, applauded him, recalling the story of Japhet
and his father Noah.

But it is not only men who have thrust the moral law
aside. The lives of George Eliot and others are known to
us. They were as nothing beside that of George Sand, who
in the matter of her private life was perhaps the nearest
approach to Byron to be found among female writers* She
passed from Baron Dudevant, her husband, to Jules Sandeau,
then to M^rimfe, then to Musset, then to Pagello, then to
Michel de Bourges, then to Pierre Leroux, then to Chopin,
and at last to Manceau, the engraver, those passions being
interspersed with platonic interludes with Lamennais and
Liszt Yet Emerson, " one of the purest of men, dwelt on
the rare and beautiful sentiment that runs through George

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 405

Sand's ' Consuelo.' And who can deny the evidence of keen
politick insight, lofty ideas, and pure morality in the
writings of Mary Wollstoneeraft, Frances Wright, and
George Eliot ? " * People still read " Consuelo;' even as they
read " Les Trois Mousquetaires." They also read w Les Con-
templations " and even dip into "Le G^nie du Christian-
isme." They ostracise none of the great write,rs because
there was error in their lives. Besides, it must be acknow-
ledged as true that a counsel of perfection, or what we regard
as perfection from our social standpoint, may well come from
the imperfect. In fact it could not be otherwise, since we
are all imperfect in one or another way.

Thus to reject Zola's books and his teaching on the
ground that there came a lapse in his life after fifty years
of strenuous endeavour would be ridiculous, for it would
entail the rejection of hundreds of others. The subject may
be dismissed, then, without further comment from the moral
point of view. Undoubtedly it will always be a source of
regret to Zola's friends that this happened, even though it
satisfied the great craving of his life. In spite of all our
knowledge of human imperfection we always try to picture
an ideal being, and we sorrow when the flaw in our ideal is
discovered, even though reason tells us that we ought to
have been prepared for it.

That the occurrences referred to caused great perturbation
in Zola's life goes without saying ; and as, about this time or
soon afterwards, some change appeared in his writings, a
certain co-relation between that change and his domestic
troubles might be suspected. But beyond what is apparent
in parts of u Le Docteur Pascal," and much later in " F^con-

1 " Westminster Keview," January, 1891, " Patriotism and Chastity," p. 2.

406 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

f> and " Travail,1* Zola's writings show no trace of the
passing storm* It was assumed by some critics, after the
completion of the Eougon-Macquart novels, that "a new
Zola " had arisen, the man who wrote ** Lourdes," " Borne," and
" Paris * being, said they, evidently very different from the
one who had penned " Nana," "Pofc-Bouille,JI and " La Terre."
It was even asserted that this novelist who had been so
obscene was becoming quite moral, at least for a man with
such shocking antecedents. But the inanity of that conten-
tion is demonstrated by the facts of the case, The so-called
obscene books were written by one who led a life of the
most rigid personal rectitude, whereas the later volumes,
which were received far more favourably, were the work of
one whom passion had conquered. That should suffice to
show how worthless is a certain Mnd of criticism. More-
over, any change that was noticed in Zola's writings was in
one respect more apparent than real. In some of his books
he had set down horrible and loathsome things because he
had found them involved in his subject Subsequently,
being confronted by less mire, he naturally gave it less
prominence. At the same time "Le Docteur Pascal"
certainly marked a new departure in his manner. In his
previous works, as we have remarked before, he had
sunk his personality and had never preached. In "Le
Docteur Pascal" he began to do so, and this gradually
became a habit with Mm. The reason is not far to seek.
For more than twenty years the critics had constantly said
to him: "If you must show the vileness of life, you should
at least point the moral. You should deplore such terrible
things, denounce them, thunder at them in your pages.**
Eemarks of that kind having been repeated hundreds of

tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 407

times. It Is not surprising that Zola, who had long felt
annoyed at seeing his books misinterpreted, should have
ended by complying with the clamour. Curiously enough,
however, the very critics who had called on him for moral
ejaculations, who had begged for sermons, then became
mightily indignant. "This man," they said, "has no Imagi-
nation left ; he does nothing but preach, his books are as dull
as ditch water. After all, we liked 'Nana1 better." Such
was the result of Zola's change of manner, a result which
might have been foreseen.

After his departure from England in 1893, the present
writer remained without news of him for some weeks;
but in November he wrote that he had been ill and unable
to attend to anything: the fact being that this was a
critical time in connection with his domestic affairs.
Nevertheless he gave some attention to an opera which
his friend M, Alfred Bruneau based on "L'Attaque du
Moulin," the libretto being partly the work of M. Louis
Gallet and partly that of Zola himself. The first per-
formance took place at the Op^ra Comique, then under
M. Carvalho's management, on November 23, with a result
gratifying to all concerned; and Zola afterwards turned
to the writing of his novel, " Lourdes/' which he intended
to make the first of three volumes to be called " Les Trois
Villes," that is, Lourdes, Rome, and Paris.

The writing of those works was Inspired by the trend of
French literature and also of opinion in France at that
time. A few years previously, on being interviewed on the
question whether Naturalism were an expiring school or
not, Zola had laughingly answered in the negative,1 Never-

l "EnqnSte sur Involution Litt&raire," by Julea Huret, Paris, 1891.

408 6HILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

theless be had observed the rise of the Symbolist, Occultist,
and Decadent schools, — a wave of returning mysticism, as
it were, which, as he had remarked in an address to the
Paris students, was invading art as well as literature. Ko
little balderdash was being written about the alleged bank-
ruptcy of science, Rome was coquetting with the Republic,
there was much talk of a new Catholicism adapted to the
modern world, the clergy were showing extreme activity, and
a good many unimrsitaires and normaliens, among whom
the Voltairean spirit had formerly predominated, seemed
won over to the Church's side and anxious to co-operate
with it in securing the return of France to the fold, as if,
indeed, agnosticism had been carried too far and must now
be checked. The Lourdes and similar pilgrimages repre-
sented a notable phase of the agitation, and Zola, who had
attended them two years running as a spectator, found in
them some illustration of the first of the Christian virtues,
Faith, It thereupon occurred to him that Borne would
illustrate Hope, for it was in her and in her pontiff, Leo
XIII, that all who desired to see the world reconquered by
a rejuvenated Catholicism set their hopes. Finally Paris
would afford abundant illustration of Charity in its various
senses. Now the question whether religion might flourish
anew in France depended, at least largely, on the practice
of the aforesaid virtues and the light in which they were
regarded by the community at large. Was the faith of
Lourdes justified, was any real hope to be found in Rome,
was the charity of Paris adequate or not ? Zola returned a
negative answer to all those questions; and at an early
stage of the writing of " Les Trois Villes " he resolved to sup-
plement this series by a further one which would enunciate

fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 409

the principles in wMch he himself believed, that is. Fruits
fulness, Work, Trath, and Justice, all springing from the
fundamental basis of Love.

** Lourdes f* gave Mm occupation throughout the winter of
1893-1894. It appeared first in the "Gil-Bias" which paid
fifty thousand francs for the serial rights, and early in the
autumn of 1894 it was issued as a volume,1 whereupon a
prelate of the papal household, a certain Monseigneur Ri-
card, vicar-general of the diocese of Air, in Provence, arose
to answer Zola, which he did in a very blundering way.*
The fathers of the Lourdes grotto also attempted some di-
rect denials of Zola's accusations of greed and imposture,
and being all powerful in the town prevented the sale of
the book there, while as a crowning stroke of condemnation
it was deferred to Rome and promptly placed, like some of
Zola*s previous works, in the famous " Indez librorum Pro-
hibitorum." Once again, also, abusive letters rained upon
the author, some emanating from deluded believers in the
Lourdes miracles, and others from angry priests and monks.
Several of those correspondents interlarded their effusions
with the language of the gutter, while others contented
themselves with briefly cursing the man who presumed to
doubt the sanctity of the unfortunate Bernadette, and the
virtues of the spring which the Assumptionist Fathers
had turned into a river of gold. That money was used in
part for the purpose of subsidising Leo XIII, but the bulk
was employed in fighting the French Republic with the

1 "Lourdes," Paris, Gharpentier, 1894, ISmo, 598 pages. Seventy thou-
sand copies sold on publication ; one hundred and fifty-fourth, thousand in
1903.

a "La Yraie Bernadette de Lourdes," Paris, 1894.

410 tmiLE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEE

object of restoring a monarchy under which the Church, and
particularly its monks, would have been all powerful.

Soon after ** Lourdes ** was finished Zola turned to u Rome,**
which necessitated a great deal of study. He was immersed
in it when there came an incident fraught with grave future
consequences for Prance. An artillery captain named
Alfred Dreyfus, attached to the General Staff of the army,
was arrested on a charge of communicating military secrets
to the German embassy. The arrest took place on October
15, 1894, but did not become known until the end of the
month, when it was divulged by two newspapers, " La Libre
Parole " and " L'Eclair." Zola gave little or no heed to it, for
quitting his books and papers he was at that very moment
preparing for a visit to Rome, which he had projected for
some time past

About the middle of October he had told Vizetelly, who
was then with him at M4dan, that he had some hope
the Pope would receive him, and that he certainly intended
to apply for an audience. Vizetelly gave publicity to this
statement, which was quoted on all sides. But almost im-
mediately afterwards, Vizetelly having returned to England,
Zola on talking the matter over with some friends found that
no audience with the Pope was possible. The reason was
simple enough. "Lourdes," "La Faute de I'AbbS Mouret,"
and several other volumes of his writings — just like the
novels of Dumas pfoe, that u accursed Garibaldian " — were
in the "Index," and accordingly, before even applying for an
audience, he would have to withdraw and annihilate those
books so far as lay in his power, and make a full submis-
sion to Holy Church.

Such were the facts, A little investigation of the sub-

6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 411

ject showed peremptorily that the popes made ii an inflex-
ible rale to receive no authors whose writings figured among
the prohibited books unless and until those authors had with-
drawn their writings and submitted. AbW Alfred Loisy,
the author of *' La Question Biblique ** and * L'Evaagile et
FEglise," has of more recent times discovered the prod-
dure to be such as is here stated. He, like Zola's AbW
Pierre Froment, repaired to Rome to plead his cause, but
though cardinals may have received him, he was not al-
lowed to approach the Pope. Zola, in his " Rome," used a
novelist's license when he brought AbW Pierre face to face
with Leo XIII ; and all readers of the book are aware that
the interview is pictured as a secret one, obtained by surrep-
titious means, such as Zola could never have employed.
Had he asked for an audience he must have done so
through the usual channel, that of the French embassy to
the Vatican ; and we have before us that embassy's express
statement that no such application was ever made. Thus,
contrary to the assertions which went the round of the
world's press, Zola did not ask to see the Pope, and the
Pope did not have occasion to refuse him.

Leaving Paris at the end of October, he remained in
Rome till December 15. He applied for an audience at the
Quirinal, and was received with a gracious cordiality by
King Umberto. Both the French ambassador to the Italian
court and the ambassador to the Vatican placed themselves
at his disposal, and furnished him either personally or
through their attaches with a quantity of information.
Some of the Italian ministers took a similar course. He
was welcomed, too, in several drawing-rooms. M. Hubert, the
great French painter, accompanied him on his visits to the

412 £llILB ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Palatine, the Sistine Chapel, the rianu of Raffaelle, and
the Vatican Museum. Signer Bernabei, director-general of
the excavations, accompanied him on other occasions, and
supplied him with a quantity of notes* As for the foolish
tale that he hribed Vatican servants for information, a tale
which went the round of the press, it was purely imaginative.
With two ambassadors, half a dozen attacMs, and a score of
prominent Italian officials at his disposal, Zola had no need
to apply to any servants whatever.

On quitting Rome he betook himself to Venice and
Brescia with the object of visiting the Italian members
of his family, the Venetian Petrapolis and Frattas, and
particularly his cousin, Carlo Zola, then a judge of the
Brescian Appeal Court Venice gave him a public recep-
tion, and at Brescia his cousin greeted him with open arms.
Unfortunately, though the novelist, assisted by his know-
ledge of Latin and Provencal, was able to read Italian fairly
accurately, he could not speak it; and as on the other
hand the judge knew no French, an interpreter had to be
provided. In spite of this drawback the intercourse was
very pleasant, and when after a sojourn of some days at
Brescia Zola set out on his journey to Paris, he repeatedly
promised to return. He was never able to do so, but his
wife, who revisited Italy on more than one occasion sub-
sequently, took care to keep up the family intercourse
which had been renewed after the lapse of so many years*

While Zola was visiting Rome the French military au-
thorities had been busy with the case of Captain Dreyfus,
but the latter's court-martial did not begin till December 19,
that is, about the time of the novelist's return to Paris ; the
degradation of the unfortunate officer following on January

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMEB 413

5, 1895. Zola, however, was now busy classifying all the
materials he had brought from Borne and revolving IE his
mind the tremendous task which lay before him. Thus,
once again, he gave comparatively little attention to the
proceedings against Dreyfus. Moreover there was nothing
in the newspapers to indicate any probability of a miscar-
riage of justice. Like everybody else, — except the members
of the Dreyfus family, whom he did not know, — Zola
assumed that the convicted officer was guilty, and there-
upon dismissed the matter from his mind.

Writing to Vizetelly on January 11, he said that he hoped
to make a Borne " a work of European interest, and if pos-
sible he should include in it some account of the wonderful
progress which the Catholic Church claimed to be effecting
in Great Britain and the United States of America. He
hoped the book would be shorter than "Lourdes," and he
intended to keep it "absolutely chaste, though very pas-
sionnS, for while Abb4 Froment would be the central figure,
a very tragic dramepasnonnel would be unfolded beside him."
However, the historic, descriptive, and controversial parts of
the work expanded in Zola's hands, and far from " Borne "
proving shorter than " Lourdes," it exceeded that book in
length by a hundred and fifty pages. The drame pasnonnel
which was to have been so prominent a feature, became
nearly lost among the surrounding matter, so that by the
time the work was finished little suggested that it was in-
tended to be a novel At the same time it was certainly one
of the books on which Zola expended most time and study.
He had begun to examine his subject in the summer of 1894,
and his proofs were not finally passed for press till the end
of February, 1896. It may be said that he gave the whole

414 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

of 1895 to the writing of f* Borne." As he had not been
to remain very long In the Eternal City, Madame Zola
returned thither to collect further information on various
points, and a perfect mountain of documents at last encom-
passed the struggling novelist, who had no little difficulty
in shaping his course. In December, 1895, the work began
to appear as ^feuilleton in * Le Journal/* the organ of Zola's
friend, M. Femand Xau, and about the same time an Eng-
lish translation was issued by various provincial and colo-
nial journals, Via&etelly having to perform a tour de force in
order to ensure this early publication. In the case of
** Lourdes n he had been assisted by his personal knowledge
of the spot, and a similar knowledge helped him with
"Borne," the actual translation of which had to be made
in about nine weeks in order to meet commercial require-
ments. That little fact will serve to illustrate the remarks
made in a previous chapter concerning the imperfection of
the translations issued under the conditions which nowa-
days prevail in the publishing world.

When " Rome " appeared as a volume early in the spring
of 1896,1 M. Gaston Deschamps, writing in "Le Temps/*
roundly accused Zola of plagiarism, and it is certain that
here and there "Borne" contained sentences taken from
Firmin Didot's publication, " Le Vatican/' and Gaston Bois-
sier's " Promenades archdologiques." Zola, on being accused,
replied in " Le Figaro " to the effect that when he was writ-
ing a book he invariably consulted every available work

i "Borne," Paris, Charpentier and Fasquelle, 1896, 18mo, 751 pages.
One hundredth thousand on sale in 1898 ; one hundred and sixth thousand
in 1903. In the case of this book and subsequent ones, the sales from 1897
onward were largely affected by the unpopularity which Zola reaped from his
participation in the Dreyfus case.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND 415

on his subject. He of his

novels in review, mentioning the by which

useful to him, aad also naming the politicians,
merchants, scientists, lawyers, architects, and others who
had provided him with detailed memoranda on various
points. For instance Jules Ferry had given him some
Information about the Haussmannization of Paris for " La
Guide/1 M. Chauchard, the director of the " Grands Maga-
slns du Louvre/1 had largely assisted Mm with u Au Bon-
heur des Dames/* M. Edmond Perrier, the scientist, had
helped him with the passages about seaweed and bromide
of potassium in " La Joie de Vivre," M. Frantz-Jourdain, the
eminent architect, had constantly befriended him in archi-
tectural matters, M. Henri C6ard had supplied Mm with
notes on music, and M. Thy^baut with consultations on
points of law, while the theory of an " elixir of life," em-
bodied in " Le Docteur Pascal," had been built for him by
his friend Dr. Maurice de Fleury. Indeed Zola claimed
that he had never discussed a scientific question or written
about an illness in his books without first taking the opin-
ion of scientists and medical men. But he claimed that he
had assimilated, adapted, and in a sense transmuted all the
information he had derived from persons and books. As
for "Kome" he was charged with having borrowed some
sentences from two or three well-known works, but, in fact,
he had consulted some scores of volumes, the titles of many
of which he gave. Briefly, he pictured himself as an archi-
tect or a sculptor, and his materials as building stones or
modelling clay ; suggesting also the example of those mas-
ters of the Eenaissance who employed a swarm of workers
to prepare their paints, their " grounds," and so forth. And

416 ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

he contended that what he had done was perfectly legiti-
mate, the only question being whether he had so used his
materials as to produce a substantial, harmonious result, and
had infused into it the spirit of life. " If it were usual," he
added, lfto indicate one's authorities in a novel, I would
willingly stud the bottom of my pages with foot-notes. And
if a line from a fellow-writer remains intact in one of my
pages, this simply proves that I am not hypocrite enough to
hide my borrowing, which it would be so easy to conceal.'*

In spite of that last remark there is reason to believe that,
in the case of "Rome," Zola had a difficulty in wrestling
with his mountain of " notes," Mid that when confronted by
some memorandum made many months previously, he some-
times imagined its phraseology to be his own and not the
suctual language of one of his authorities. It seems qiiite
likely that if the latter had been, patent to Mm he would
have paraphrased the memorandum. With respect to the
actual principle for which he contended it is obvious that
the novelist possessed of any conscientiousness ought often
to read up certain subjects and consult a variety of author-
ities. It is indeed a pity that the practice is not followed
more generally, for one would then be spared the thousands
of blunders in elementary questions of law, science, history,
precedence, titles, etc., which appear in so much contem-
porary fiction.

Zola's defence with respect to " Rome " will be found in
a volume called "Nouvelle Canipagne,"1 which contains a
number of articles he contributed to " Le Figaro " in 1896.
They are of all sorts. The first, on the opportunism of Leo
XIII, foreshadows the denunciation of the Roman Catholic

* "KouYeHe Campagne," Paris, E. Fasquelle, 1897, 18mo, 286 pages.

Photo by V. R. Vizeteily

Ernilc Zola writing "Fecondite" at Wakon-on-Thames, 1898

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 417

Church which eventually appeared in " Y4rit£ " ; while an-
other, called "Depopulation," contains the germ of "F£con-
dit&" There are various papers on the professional interests
of literary men ; a couple on Zola's love of animals, which was
very marked throughout his life ; and an incisive one, called
" The Toad/* in which he railed at the people who sent him
abusive letters and the newspaper men who pursued him with
pinpricks. Then, in a paper on a Parisian clairvoyante, a cer-
tain Mademoiselle Couesdon, who pretended to be in direct
communication with the archangel Gabriel, he commented on
the childishness of the imposture and deplored the senseless
eagerness with which people imagined they would discover
the secrets of the invisible by consulting a semi-hysterical
girl. At the same time he admitted that such was the trend
of the modern mind; and, after all, as people could only
satisfy their yearnings in this way, one must let them do so,
said he, pending the time when science would nourish the
world with the bread of truth. However, the most notable
article in the volume was certainly the one entitled "For
the Jews," in which for the first time Zola gave expression
to his surprise and disgust at the progress of anti-Semitism
in France. In that campaign, the Dreyfus case, which at
first had been merely an incident, was soon to become
everything, for Colonel Picquart was now (July, 1896)
making important discoveries which convinced him of the
innocence of Dreyfus and the guilt of Esterhazy. That was
as yet unknown to Zola, who did not begin to intervene
until late in the autumn of the following year. Thus, in
protesting against'the anti-Jewish agitation which had been
growing and spreading for some years past, he treated the
question from a general point of view without mentioning

418 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the unhappy prisoner of Devil's Island. And here one may
well call a halt to consider the state of affairs which had
prompted 'Zola to raise his voice on behalf of a community
with which he had no connection whatever, either racial or
religious, but which he defended by virtue entirely of the
guiding principles of his life, — the principles of truth and
justice.

XIII

THE DBEYFUS CASE
1894-1900

The growth of anti-Semitism in France — The Jews in Paris — The Union
Generale — Drumont, "La France Juive," and "La Libre Parole" —
Clerical plotting — Accusations against the Jews — Anti-Semitism in
the army — Zola begins his novel " Paris " — His idea of a novel on ballet
girls — "Messidor" — Facts and documents concerning Dreyfus sub-
mitted to Zola — He resolves to intervene — His articles in " Le Figaro "
— His " Letter to Young Men " — He is hissed at Daudet's funeral — His
" Letter to France " — The Esterhazy court-martial — Character of Ester-
hazy — Zola writes his letter " J'Accuse " — Some extracts from it — Its
reception — Riots in the provinces and Algeria — Incidents of the turmoil
in Paris — Zola prosecuted — Foreign sympathy — His counsel, Maitre
Labori. — Clericals and Nationalists at work — The trial at the Paris
Assize Court — A few of the facts it elicited — Zola mobbed — His body-
guard — Madame Zola at the trial — Zola's declaration to the jury — A
glance at Labori* s great speech — Reception of the verdict — Publication
of " Paris " — Zola's conviction quashed — New proceedings — First trial
at Versailles — Incidents of the campaign — The handwriting experts
secure judgment against Zola — Zola's letter to M. Brisson — Second
trial at Versailles — Zola leaves for London — His sojourn in England —
His English homes — Some of his notes to Vizetelly — Death of his pet
dog — His visitors — Incidents in France — Zola's return to Paris — His
manifesto " Justice " — Return of Dreyfus to France — The Rennes court-
martial — Zola's manifesto "The Fifth Act" — His letter to Madame
Dreyfus — Dreyfus pardoned — " Fe*condite " published — Zola's trial
repeatedly postponed — Zola's protests against the Amnesty — His sacri-
fices for the cause — The medal struck in his honour.

THE emancipation of the French Jews dates from the
great Eevolution. At the assembling of the States-General
in 1789 they entered on a brief and victorious struggle, in
which their chief ally, curiously enough, was a Catholic

420 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

priest, the famous Abbd Gr^goire. From that period until
the Third Republic, established in 1870, there was never, it
would seem, any really considerable Jewish question in
France. A little trouble occurred in the time of the first
Napoleon. Some Jews were certainly mixed up in the
financial scandals of Louis Philippe's reign, and Toussenel's
work, " Les Juifs, Rois de I'Spoque," was the result. Ras-
cality was occasionally manifested also by some of the Jews
who became prominent in finance during the Second Em-
pire ; but the presence of the Jews generally, in the midst
of the community, excited no alarm. After the war of
1870, however, the number of Jews in France increased
considerably, the new arrivals being chiefly of German,
Austrian, Swiss, or Alsatian nationality. Most of them
settled in Paris, where they engaged in a variety of profes-
sions and avocations, showing themselves, as a rule, shrewd,
hard-working, and orderly members of society. About the
same time some thousands of French Jews — participating
in a movement which characterised the earlier years of
the Third Republic, the so-called conquest of northern by
southern France — also flocked to the capital. "Le Midi
monte" was in those days a favourite saying, echoed by
Alphonse Daudet in his "Numa Roumestan" with refer-
ence to all the Gascons and Provengals who then invaded
Paris and came to the front there in politics, art, literature,
and social life. The descendants of the Spanish and Portu-
guese Jews, who in the sixteenth century had settled in
southern France, at Bordeaux, Avignon, and other cities,
joined in the great migration to the capital, and thus ten years
after the Franco-German war there were three or four times
as many Jews in Paris as there had been previously.

^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 421

But they were peaceable citizens and for the most part
stanch Republicans. They remembered that the Revolu-
tion had given them emancipation, and they did not desire
the restoration of any monarchy which might take it from
them, or of any empire with an adventurous policy which
might plunge the country into war and interfere with their
avocations. Many of them, no doubt, had a comparatively
low ideal in view, that of quietly prospering in their business ;
but an element of that kind is desirable in a community
like that of Paris, which numbers many firebrands in its
midst. Besides, it is not too much to say that, on more
than one occasion, the Jews of Paris helped to save the
Republic by throwing all their influence into the balance
on the side of law and order, as, for instance, during the
Boulangist turmoil.

However, for some years previous to that agitation, an anti-
Jewish feeling had been growing up in Paris. The ultra-
Catholics, the Royalists, and other malcontents resented the
spread of Jewish influence ; and two financiers, named Bon-
toux and F4der, availed themselves of that disposition to
found a great Christian Bank, the Union G6ndrale, which, it
was hoped, would deprive the Jewish — and also the Protes-
tant— financiers of a large proportion of their customers.
Pope Leo XIII blessed that bank, and invested in it some
millions of francs — the fruits of Peter's pence — which the
pious Bontoux promised to restore to him fourfold. But
the director of the Union G^n&rale unluckily fell out with
a great financier, M. Lebaudy, the millionaire sugar refiner,
who though he was nominally a Catholic cared nothing for
the advancement of the Church or of the French aristocracy,
which had invested large sums of money in the Bontoux

422 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

bank. At last, after some prodigious Bourse gambling, —
such as Zola described in "L* Argent," — the Union G£n&-
rale was smashed by M. Lebaudy, who raked in by far
the greater part of the spoils.

Undoubtedly there were some Jewish and also Protes-
tant financiers with him, but it was he who engineered the
work of destruction which ruined several members of
the French aristocracy, and swallowed up the savings of
many good Catholics in modest circumstances who had
foolishly taken financial advice from their priests. Nine out
of ten attributed the disaster to the Jews exclusively, and it
was virtually from that hour that people began to talk of
the so-called Jewish question. It was discussed at first in
the Royalist and Clerical newspapers, which pictured the
Israelites as the great enemies of those who wished to
restore France to her ancient kings and her ancient faith.
In another way the cry was taken up by some of the
Radicals and Socialists opposed to Gambetta, in whose
entourage several Jews figured prominently. These men,
it was said, had nobbled the ex-dictator and were preying
upon France. Thus the "question" gradually spread,
assisted largely by the many unpopular tergiversations
of the Opportunist party, first in Gambetta's time, and then
over a term of years, some folk detecting the hand of the
Jews, precisely as others detected that of the Jesuits, in
everything that happened.

Moreover books were written on the question. Under
the title of " Les Rois de la R&publique," Toussenel's forgotten
work was hashed up for popular consumption; and about
the time when General Boulanger was coming to the front
(1886), there appeared a book called "La France Juive,"

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 423

written by a certain Bdouard Drumont, a scholarly man,
wlio had long dabbled in antiquarian research. It so hap-
pened that nature had given Drumont a characteristically
Jewish face, while his slovenly habits had imparted to him
much of the appearance of one of those "old clo'" men,
who, forty or fifty years ago, still perambulated the streets
of London and Paris. He has repeatedly disclaimed, how-
ever, all connection with Jewry ; and his personal appear-
ance may therefore be merely some spiteful freak on the
part of nature, which has cast him in the very mould of
some of those whom he loathes and denounces.

" La France Juive, " which as an attack on the so-called
chosen race has never been surpassed in virulence and men-
dacity, created an uproar in some political and financial
circles ; but it did not at first make much impression on the
general public. The Panama scandals began, however ; mil-
lions of money were lost, the victims often being needy
people ; and helped by the circumstance that three or four of
the principal culprits in those affairs were unquestionably
Jews, and by the reissue of large portions of " La Trance
Juive" in"Le Petit Journal," Drumont and his writings
achieved great notoriety. A newspaper established by him,
"La Libre Parole," became the recognised organ of anti-
Semitism in Paris ; and as this journal was financed by a
certain M. Odelin, the administrator of the famous Jesuit
school in the Rue des Postes, one may conclude that at an
early stage at least some part of the French clergy gave
support to the agitation ; for the position of M. Odelin as
a mere intermediary, or man of straw, was notorious. l

1 It was proved, in a court of justice, during the proceedings taken by
the French government against the Assumptionist Fathers.

424 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

As time elapsed the attitude of the Clericals became yet
more pronounced. Pope Leo XIII made advances to the
French Republic. From his standpoint they may have
been sincere ; but in any case they tended to the supremacy
of the Roman Catholic Church in France. On their side,
the French Reactionaries, clergy and religious orders as well
as laymen, could not give any frank and loyal support to
the papal policy such as it was publicly stated to be, for it
was foreign to their ideas, sympathies, and aspirations. If
they made some outward show of acquiescence, this was
only with the secret object of obtaining the mastery by
feigning friendship and afterwards destroying the Repub-
lican regime. But the Republic of 1848 was not forgotten ;
the clergy had then adhered to the new order of things the
better to strangle it ; and thus, in spite of all the fair words
of Leo XIII and the protestations of those who professed
that they had rallied to the Republic in all sincerity, the
more clear-sighted Republicans, like the advanced Radicals
and the Socialists, remained full of distrust Some years
elapsed before matters really took shape. At first, indeed,
the Pope merely coquetted with the Republic, reserving a
formal pronouncement of his adhesion until an apparently
decisive moment, and the clergy worked somewhat stealthily,
assisted by those university men and others who abetted or
accepted the retour offensif of mysticism in literature. Then,
as time went by, the residue of the Boulangist party raised
its head to propound various theories of Nationalism, Milita-
rism, and anti-Parliamentarism, to the last of which the
Panama scandals lent some force. For many years, un-
doubtedly, the trend of the masses had been towards free
thought, but the sentiments of Nationalism and Chauvinisme

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 425

appealed to many. The clergy had been striving to win
France back to the fold by such devices as the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, the Lourdes miracles, and the money-boxes of
Saint Antony, but whatever success might be achieved by
those means here and there, it was not great enough to
satisfy priestly aspirations. To all appearance there was not
sufficient faith left among the masses for supernatural con-
siderations to influence them in the required degree. Only
earthly matters seemed to interest them, and it followed,
therefore, that these must be put to use. Thus the clergy
aided, abetted, and finally slipped into the Nationalist move-
ment, which seemed the one most likely to yield the desired
result.

It has been indicated that the great bulk of Jewish influ-
ence had hitherto been cast on the side of the Eepublic ; and
thus, although the Freemasons and the Protestants were
also regarded as enemies by the Clericals, it was felt that
they might be dealt with later, and that the first thing, the
principal thing, was to destroy the power of the Jews. The
ground, then, was gradually prepared for a campaign.
Helped by the Panama scandals, * La Libre Parole," follow-
ing " La France Juive," neglected no opportunity to traduce
the Jews generally.1 The Nationalist journals joined in
the outcry, pointing out that many of the Jews domiciled in
France bore German names, and arguing that, although
they often asserted they were Alsatians, the assertion was
usually a lie. In some instances, perhaps, they conspired
with foreign Jews ; and at all events they formed an im-

1 It was for a while opposed by a journal entitled "La Vraie Parole,"
established by Dr. Singer, subsequently the initiator of the well-known
"Jewish Encyclopaedia." As time elapsed " La Libre Parole " was reinforced
by another scurrilous organ, * * L'Anti-Juif."

426 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER

perium in imperio, clinging to their own kith and kin, their
particular rites and usages, leading, as it were, a life
apart from the rest of the community. Briefly, they were
not Frenchmen, and were therefore not entitled to a French-
man's rights.

As a matter of fact, many thousands of the Jews domiciled
in Paris did not adhere strictly to Jewish practices. In the
financial world several prominent families had not only
become Catholic, but had contracted matrimonial alliances
with the French aristocracy ; while the whole tendency of
those whom one may call the Boulevardian Jews, the
members of the liberal professions, the authors, journalists,
artists, and actors, was towards free thought and an inter-
mingling with the bulk of the community.1 In fact, in the
present writer's opinion, before the more violent explosion of
anti-Semitism in France, Paris was the city where one saw
most sign of a blending of the Jews with the rest of the
population — a very slow and gradual blending, no doubt,
but none the less evident to careful observers.

But that was not taken into account by the Clerical and
the Nationalist leaders in the campaign which both parties
carried on, not, perhaps, by virtue of any formal alliance, but
because both desired an effective war-cry which would appeal
to popular passions and gain them recruits. In the end the
Nationalists, though they denied it, were generally directed
by the leaders of the Clerical party, who were men of much
greater shrewdness and ability than the D4roulfedes, the
Millevoyes, the Haberts, and the G-uMns, and who thus
contrived, in an indirect way, to employ the Nationalist
movement for their own advantage. Both parties had the
same immediate object in view — the destruction of the Ee-
1 The same may be said of many of the scientists.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE 427

public, such as it existed — and thus they could well work
together ; but the Clerical leaders were resolved that, what-
ever might be the subsequent form of government, the real
mastery should belong to Holy Church. Moreover some
Nationalists were Clericals also. In 1891 D£roul£de, the
Nationalist chief, expressly accused the Jews of trying to
" dechristianise " France; and in the following year a
journal belonging to Deputy Delahaye, another Nationalist,
fabricated a charge of " ritual murder," perpetrated, it was
alleged, at Chatellerault. A little later the Marquis de
Mor&s, Clerical, Nationalist, and anti-Semite all in one, in-
sulted and challenged a number of Jewish army officers.
" La Libre Parole " espoused his cause, and a movement to
prevent Jews from serving as officers slowly set in, leading
a couple of years later to the Dreyfus case.

In this connection one may remind the reader that an
overwhelming proportion of the officers of the French army
belonged to devout Catholic families, often aristocratic and
royalist ones, which while thinking that a young man ought
not to serve the government of the Eepublic in any political
or administrative post were willing that he should accept a
diplomatic appointment or join the army as an officer, for in
such cases it was really France that he served, and not the
hateful Eepublican regime. That distinction had been drawn
already in MacMahon's time and was adhered to for many
years, indeed until the clergy saw how advisable it was for
their proteges to accept other public functions in order to
fight the influence of the Jews and the Freemasons in vari-
ous State departments. Thus many young men, trained by
the Jesuits and others, were helped as far as possible into
official positions without being restricted as previously to

428 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the diplomatic service and the army. Nevertheless, the last
remained the favourite carribre among young aristocrats as
well as among many young men of the upper bourgeoisie ;
and the great majority of these having been educated by
ecclesiastics were, without doubt, prejudiced against the
young Jews whom the regulations admitted among them.
The prejudice was not, however, entirely religious, it was
also a racial and a caste prejudice among those who be-
longed more or less to the old noblesse, and it was often in
a sense patriotic, being inspired by a kind of distrust of
Jewish rectitude. Indeed, even Jewish courage was ques-
tioned by some who forgot, or were not aware, that no little
Jewish blood had flowed in the veins of such great fighters
as Massdna, Soult, and Bernadotte.

The agitation against the French Jews had been growing
slowly, then, for several years. An explosion was bound to
come in any case, particularly as, with the exception of the
one ministry which put down Greneral Boulanger, the vari-
ous French administrations over a lengthy period were
deplorably weak. In the end the Dreyfus case became the
battlefield of the parties which were contending for mastery.
The outcry against the Jews was prompted, even among the
Clericals, less by genuine religious motives than by political
ones. The Jews were the pretext. Behind the onslaught
on them, one on the Republic was being engineered. One
may add that the anti-Semitism which arose in France was
naturally assisted by that which prevailed in Austria and
in Russia. Moreover, the Russian alliance became in cer-
tain respects £a factor of importance ; and the slumbering
hatred of Germany on being roused in connection with
Dreyfus influenced thousands of patriotic people.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 429

Into the more intricate details of the case the writer
does not propose to enter.1 When this hook was first pro-
jected he had some thought of reviewing a few curious
points, but since then the victim of the great iniquity has
applied for the revision of the proceedings at Rennes, and
the matter is now before the judicial authorities. It is
therefore best that one should confine oneself to narrating
what Zola himself did to rescue Dreyfus from the hell
in which he suffered for so many years — just recapitulat-
ing, as one proceeds, the facts which are essential for a
proper understanding of Zola's rdle. At the same time one
must not neglect his literary work, and the more important
Incidents, which, apart from the Dreyfus case, marked his
career at this period.

It has been shown previously that the novelist paid little
heed to the anti-Semites — whom he regarded as more tur-
bulent than dangerous — until 1896, when he campaigned
in "Le Figaro" and wrote an article entitled "For the
Jews." He afterwards turned to his novel "Paris," con-
cerning which he wrote to Vizetelly on December 11, 1896 :

"My plan is finished, and I am about to begin the book.
* Paris* will be a novel, full of action, on all the different 'worlds'
of Paris — the political, the intellectual, the society, the working-
class worlds, etc. There will be no digressions or dissertations,
but as much life and action as possible. You know that I never
make promises without keeping them. The story will begin to
appear in *Le Journal* between October 15 and 31 (1897), and
will be published as a volume at the end of January, 1898. Try
to find an English newspaper to publish it, and you may also

1 For them the reader may be referred to the "Histoire de 1* Affaire
Dreyfus" — a masterpiece of research, literary skill, and acumen — which
M. Joseph Keinach is producing in several volumes* Paris, Fasquelle.

430 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

sound the Americans, telling them that you will supply the most
lively and interesting book I have yet written."

About this time Zola also gave some attention to a four-
act lyrical drama entitled " Messidor," l the music of which
was composed by his friend M. Alfred Bruneau.2 This
work took the novelist to the Grand Opera House, where it
was to be produced. He attended all the rehearsals, and
evinced particular interest in the young women of the
ballet, about whom — their appearance, manners, conversa-
tion, and lives — he accumulated a quantity of notes, with
the object, so he afterwards told Vizetelly, of writing a novel
about them, a novel which he would probably have called
"Le Rat/* — rats de V Opera being the name under which
the minor dancers of the house have long been, known in
Paris. It may be mentioned that a ballet designed for
expressive character-dancing was a prominent feature of
"Messidor/' and that success largely depended on its effi-
cient performance. But the authors found the corps de
ballet wedded to the stereotyped forms of stage-dancing,
the customary insipid jetes, pas de chales, entrechats, pirou-
ettes, and so forth. Either from incapacity or in a spirit of
obstinacy, the ladies of the opera would not modify their
methods, and Zola, who had dreamt of revolutionising stage-
dancing, of infusing into it some of the old Grecian fervour,
which expressed the various passions so powerfully, was
greatly disappointed. When " Messidor " was produced on
February 19, 1897, it achieved little more than a succfo d'es~

1 "Messidor" was the tenth, or harvest month, in the calendar of the
First Republic.

2 The writer does not know when Zola wrote the libretto of "Messidor " ;
but it seems likely that he did so in 1894 or 1895, for M. Bruneau must have
subsequently required considerable time for the music.

tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 431

time. The ballet was praised by the critics, who judged it
from the customary standpoint, but it was not what the
composer and Zola had desired. Of course, no other result
was possible. Years would be required to effect a revolu-
tion in stage-dancing, at least at the Paris Opera House.

After the production of "Messidor," Zola confined his
attention to " Paris " for several months, and it was only on
quitting M^dan for his town residence late in the autumn
of 1897 that he began to give serious attention to the Drey-
fus case. The various attempts which both the Dreyfus
family, through M. Bernard Lazare, and Colonel Picquart,
influenced by his own discoveries, had made in 1896 to
bring about a careful inquiry into the whole affair had
yielded little result; but in 1897 the matter was taken up
by M. Scheurer-Kestner, a much respected vice-president
of the Senate, who came to the conclusion that the offence
for which Dreyfus had been convicted had really been per-
petrated by Major Walsin-Esterhazy. The latter received
warning of what was brewing, and about the time when
Zola moved from M4dan into Paris, as mentioned above, the
anti-Semitic press, having espoused Esterhazy's cause, was
again thundering against the Jews. Some of Zola's friends
interested in the Affair — as everybody called it — spoke to
him about it at length. Before long, indeed, several docu-
ments were shown him at his house, and left a deep impres-
sion on Ms mind. He had no personal acquaintance with
the Dreyfus family ; he never saw Madame Dreyfus till she
appeared in court during his own trial in February, 1898 ;
and if on a dozen occasions, at the utmost, he met M.
Mathieu Dreyfus and discussed the case with him, all such
interviews took place posterior to his intervention. This

432 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

was based on a dispassionate study of the facts and docu-
ments laid before Mm. He weighed them with his usual
care, exactly as he weighed the documents he collected for
his books; and it must not be imagined that the charges
he eventually formulated were brought in any haphazard
fashion. Zola's intellect, one may repeat it, was essentially
systematic, and his judgment of facts and his logical powers
were exceptionally good.1 At the time of his trial in Paris
there were many gaps in his information, undoubtedly, but
its full extent was not then revealed, owing to the extraor-
dinary course imparted to the proceedings by the judge and
the military men. Various facts which were not publicly di-
vulged until much later were kept back deliberately by the
novelist's counsel, Maftre Labori, as a matter of strategy,
and it follows that Zola's action was far less quixotic than
some people then took it to be.

It has been assumed occasionally that the novelist's in-
tervention began with his famous letter, " J'Accuse." That,
of course, is an error. One day in November, 1897, while
he was out walking, he met M. Fernand de Rodays, the direc-
tor of " Le Figaro," and they talked of the Affair together.
Zola realised that M. de Rodays had arrived at much the

* "The Westminster Gazette" published on January 16, 1898, a letter
from the present writer, in which he said, inter alia: "I regard Zola as a
man of very calm, methodical, judicial mind. He is no ranter, no lover of
words for words' sake, no fiery enthusiast. ... If ever he "brings forward a
theory he bases it on a mountain of evidence, and invariably subordinates his
feelings to his reason. I therefore venture to say that if he has come forward
in this Dreyfus case it is not because he feels that wrong has been done but
because he is absolutely convinced of it. Doubtless many of the expressions
in his recent letter to President Faure have come from his heart, but they
were in the first place dictated by his reason. It is not for me at the present
hour to speak of proofs ... but most certainly Zola has not taken up this
case without what he considers to be abundant proof,"

Photo by E. Zola

Penn, Oatlands Chase, Surrey
( Denise, Jacques, Violette Vizetelly )

Photo by 6. Zola

Summerfield, Addlestone, Surrey

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 433

same conclusions as himself, and he thereupon offered to
write some articles. M. de Rodays assented, and on Novem-
ber 25 — ten days after M. Mathieu Dreyfus had formally
denounced Major Walsin-Esterhazy as author of the notori-
ous "bordereau l — " Le Figaro " printed a first contribution
from Zola's pen, an article entitled " M. Scheurer-Kestner."
On December 1 came a second, " Le Syndicat," which, was
followed on December 5 by a third, called " Frocks-Verbal."
Those articles were temperately worded ; they appealed to
the reader's judgment, and protested in a sober way against
all attempts to inflame the popular passions. They cer-
tainly indicated a belief in Dreyfus's innocence, and asked
for full inquiry ; and on that account they angered the
readers of "Le Figaro," who, being for the most part
society people, sympathised with the Jew-baiters. More-
over the anti-Semitic and Nationalist prints, alarmed to find
such a capable man as Zola espousing the cause of Dreyfus,
at once attacked him savagely. He then had to withdraw
from "Le Figaro," whose director, while adhering to his
personal opinion in favour of Dreyfus, was unable to with-
stand the clamour of his readers and shareholders.

1 For the assistance of the reader who may hare forgotten the details of the
Dreyfus case one may mention that this bordereau was a kind of covering note,
giving a list of certain memoranda and docnments on French army matters
which the writer said he was then forwarding to the person whom, he ad-
dressed. This person, it has always "been assumed, was the German military
attache in Paris. At all events it was from his lodgings or from the German
embassy itself that the bordereau reached the Secret Intelligence Department
of the French Ministry of War, then directed by Colonel Sandherr, a strong
anti-Semite, and Major (later Colonel) Henry. The writing of this bor-
dereau was attributed to Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jewish officer on
the General Staff of the Army, and he, after a summary inquiry made by
Major (later Colonel) du Paty de Clam, was arrested on the charge of betraying
military secrets to a foreign power. Such, briefly, was the origin qf the
case.

434 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

As it seemed doubtful whether any other paper of stand-
ing would print what Zola might write about the case, and
as he desired to retain full liberty of action, he decided to
continue his campaign with pamphlets, and a first was pub-
lished on December 14. It was called a " Letter to Young
]\jerL » — that is the students and others, who at one moment
ran about the streets shouting " Long live the army ! Down
with the Jews!" and at another assembled outside the
homes of M. Scheurer-Kestner and others and hooted them.
Zola expostulated with these young fellows, pointed out
the folly and baseness of their conduct, and exhorted them
to strive for truth, humanity, and justice. He declared, too,
en passant, that the Chamber of Deputies had just covered
itself with shame by a vote of censure which it had pre-
sumed to pass on those whom it accused of " troubling the
public conscience by an odious campaign," — that campaign
being simply the appeal for truth and equity made by him-
self and others.

The pamphlet l stirred up the feelings of those for whom
it was intended. They resented it, and began to demon-
strate against Zola himself. Two days later, December 16,
his good friend and fellow-novelist, Alphonse Daudet, died ;
and when Zola appeared as one of the pall-bearers at the
funeral, so angry were the passions of the crowd that the
respect due to the dead was forgotten, and groans and hisses
were heard again and again as the cortege took its way
to the cemetery of P&re-Lachaise.

1 "Lettre &la Jeunesse," Paris, Fasquelle, 1897, 8vo, 16 pages and cover,
bearing, "besides the title, the inscription: "Humanite*, Yerite', Justice."
Price, 10 centimes. The text is reproduced in the volume of Zola's writings
on the Dreyfus case, entitled "La Ve'rite' en Marche," which also contains
the " Figaro " articles and most of the letters published in "L'Aurore," etc.,
until Zola ceased to take part in the Affair,

iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 435

There, by the graveside, Zola read a pathetic farewell to
his departed friend and comrade, of whose corpse, in accord-
ance with usage, he had been one of the watchers a few
nights previously. His hand shook as he fingered his
manuscript, and there was poignant emotion in his voice
when he evoked the memory not only of Daudet, but also
of those who had gone before, — Flaubert and Edmond de
Goncourt. "They were giants, good giants, artisans of
truth and beauty," he said ; " and now, great even as they
were, of equal stature by virtue of the work he accom-
plished, Daudet has gone to join them in the grave, to
repose beside them like a brother, in the same glory. We
were four brothers : three have departed already, I remain
alone."

Doubtless his feelings of loneliness were intensified by
the groans, the cries he had heard, the ill-disguised hostility
also of some of the mourners around him. But Zola was a
stubborn man, great by reason of that very stubbornness.
No attacks, no insults, no sufferings, could ever turn him
from any purpose that he resolved upon in the plenitude
of his intellect, guided by his sense of right and wrong.
Soon after Daudet's funeral, that is on January 6, 1898, he
issued another pamphlet, this time a " Letter to France," 1
in which, after referring to the approaching arraignment of
Major Walsin-Esterhazy before a court-martial, he pro-
tested against the violence of the press, and while disclaim-
ing all idea of insulting the army, pointed out the dangers of

1 "Lettre & la France," Paris, Fasquelle, 1898, uniform with the u Lettre
& la Jeunesse." An English translation of these letters and of " J' Accuse,"
and a further letter to General Billot, is published "by John Lane, London
and New York, under the title of " Zola'a Letters to France." Introduction
by L. F. Austin. 16mo, xiii-45 pages.

436 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

militarism, the threatening shadow of the sword, which,
unless France were careful, would lead her to dictatorship.
Behind all else he showed the Church bent on reviving the-
ocracy and intolerance. And with respect to the Affair
itself, after complaining that the public mind had been
poisoned against those who had resolved to elucidate the
truth, he pointed out that if Dreyfus had been condemned
on a document written by another (Esterhazy), whose guilt
could be proved thereby, a revision of his case would be an
imperative, logical necessity, for there could not be two per-
sons condemned for the same crime. Besides, Dreyfus had
been legally condemned on the "bordereau alone — the only
paper shown to his counsel — and even if there were other
papers which in defiance of the law had been kept secret,
who could refuse revision if it were proved that the borde-
reau, the one known, acknowledged document, was from the
hand of another man ?

But the French "War Office was determined that the
authorship of the bordereau should not be brought home to
Walsin-Esterhazy. General Saussier, Military Governor of
Paris, one of the few unprejudiced army chiefs of that time,
had ordered a prosecution, but the investigations were car-
ried out by the unscrupulous General de Pellieux, behind
whom was the even more unscrupulous Colonel Henry
of the Intelligence Bureau, and the acquittal of Esterhazy
was virtually prearranged. The charge against him —
as preferred by M. Mathieu Dreyfus — was that of
having written, the bordereau for which Alfred Drey-
fus had been condemned, but at the court-martial of
January 10 and 11, 1898, that definite accusation was never
considered. The proceedings were turned against another

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 437

officer, the gallant Colonel Picquart, who had been the first to
discover indications of Esterhazy's guilt. For the rest, there
was a deal of nonsense about a " veiled lady " and a " lib-
erating document " ; and at last Walsin-Esterhazy was
unanimously acquitted.

He was, one may remind the reader, an illegitimate
descendant of a famous Hungarian house, by reason of
which connection he had assumed the title of Count. Bold,
clever, cunning, unscrupulous, a thorough spendthrift, he
had squandered his means and much of his wife's, also, in
the gambling hells of Paris. He had begun his military
career as a Papal Zouave. As a French soldier he was
known to have been guilty of malversation in Algeria and
to have forged certificates of his own exploits. He had
written infamous letters about the French army to a
relative, Madame de Boulancy. He had repeatedly found
himself in desperate straits financially and had then bor-
rowed money of Jews whom he had never repaid. He
had practically deserted his wife and lived with a woman
known as Mademoiselle Pays, who had been an halituee
of the notorious Parisian dancing saloon, the Moulin-
Rouge. She was certainly devoted to him, and he did
not hesitate to eat her bread. There is nowadays no
doubt at all that he and none other perpetrated the crimes
for which Dreyfus had been sentenced. He had insulted
and jeered at France in his private letters, and he had sold
such of her military secrets as he could discover, not once
nor twice, but repeatedly, over a considerable period, to
Colonel von Schwarzkoppen, the German military attachi
in Paris, and perhaps to Colonel Panizzardi, the Italian, and
Colonel Schneider, the Austrian attache, also. His guilt

438 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

with respect to the lordweau was not perhaps absolutely
established at the time of his acquittal, but his frauds and
his general laxity of life were well known even then. Yet
he was acclaimed as the " martyr of the Jews/1 cheered by
a delirious crowd of officers and anti-Semites, embraced
in public by young Prince Henri d'Orldans as though he
were the very embodiment of the national honour. And
on the morrow the gallant Colonel Picquart, who had striven
to prove his unworthiness, was arrested and imprisoned
in the fortress of Mont Val^rien.

Zola now fully realised that the military authorities were
resolved on a denial of justice. They dreaded an exposure
of their blunders, their lies, and their illegal practices at the
time of the conviction of Dreyfus. No ordinary means
could bring about a manifestation of the truth. There re-
mained " the sacred right of insurrection," which was not to
be exercised lightly, for only in a great extremity could it
be justifiably put to use. In Zola's opinion such an ex-
tremity had arrived. The sole means of eliciting the truth
lay in carrying the Affair from the military tribunals to a
civil court of justice, where some equity might perhaps be
found ; but this was only to be achieved by a virtually revo-
lutionary method. Zola felt he must employ such a method.
He could not hesitate. The call of truth and justice was too
imperative, At once, therefore, directly he heard of the
acquittal of Esterhazy, telling nobody but his wife of his
intention, Zola drew up an open letter to M. F41ix Faure,
the President of the Republic. It was speedily despatched
to the printing firm which had already printed the " Lettre
k la Jeunesse" and the "Lettre k la France," the intention
being to publish it as a pamphlet. A proof was already

]£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 439

corrected when Zola thought of giving the letter a wider
publicity by issuing it in a newspaper. A Radical journal
called " L'Aurore," established in 1896 by M. Ernest Vaughan,
previously one of the coadjutors of Henri Rochefort, had
already taken up the cause of Dreyfus in a very cour-
ageous manner. Zola therefore offered his letter to M.
Vaughan, who at once decided to publish it; and though
it Was also printed as a pamphlet it was never offered for
sale in the latter form.1 It appeared in " L'Aurore " on the
morning of January 13, 1898, with the following heading
— what French journalists call technically a mancJtette —
in bold type : " J' Accuse ... ! " The idea was M. Vaughan's,
and though the proper title, " A Letter to the President
of the Republic from Smile Zola," was duly given, it was as
" J' Accuse" ("I Accuse") that the letter became known all
the world over.

It was a powerful piece of writing ; those who only knew
the Affair by what appeared on the surface judged it at the
time to be too violent, excessive, but it was fully justified by
subsequent events and discoveries. After expressing solici-
tude for M. F&ix Faure and his presidency, on which so
much mud had been cast by the Affair and its abominations,
and setting forth that a court-martial had just dared to
acquit, by order, an Esterhazy, a supreme blow to all truth
and justice, Zola declared that on his side he would dare to
do something, that is speak the truth, as he did not wish to
be a tacit accomplice, for in that case his nights would be
haunted by the spectre of an innocent man who was expi-
ating beyond the seas, in frightful torture, a crime he had

* Zola says in " La Ve"rite* en Marche " that the pamphlets remained ware-
housed. The writer believes that they were ultimately destroyed.

440 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER

not committed. Next came an interesting summary of the
Dreyfus case, a denunciation of the extraordinary methods and
machinations of Colonel du Paty de Clam, by whom Dreyfus
had been arrested, an account of the support which Du Paty
had received from Generals de Boisdeffre, Mercier, and
Gonse, a scathing exposure of the emptiness of the indict-
ment on which Dreyfus had been convicted, and a scornful
rejection of a certain secret document about " a scoundrel
named D." l Passing to Esterhazy's case, Zola showed Pic-
quart unravelling the truth but thwarted in his endeavours
by Generals Billot, de Boisdeffre, and Gonse, because the
condemnation of Esterhazy would necessarily imply a revi-
sion of the proceedings against Dreyfus. General Billot
had not been compromised in them, he was a newcomer,
but had taken the crimes of others under his wing in order
to save what he deemed to be the interests of the military
party. However, M. Mathieu Dreyfus had denounced Ester-
hazy, who after being greatly alarmed, ready for suicide
or flight, had all at once become audacious, having received
help from "a veiled lady," otherwise Du Paty de Clam,
whose work, the conviction of Dreyfus, was now seriously
imperilled, and who therefore had to defend it. Then
Zola referred to the struggle between Colonels du Paty and
Picquart, the latter of whom was at last accused of forging
a petit Neu, otherwise a card-telegram, in order to ruin Ester-
hazy, in such wise that the one honest military man in the
whole Affair was made a victim. The proceedings at the
Esterhazy court-martial had been iniquitous, and yet in a
sense only natural, for as Zola wrote:

1 One of the points on which the new revision proceedings (1904) have
"been based is that the initial D was substituted in the document for another
letter, probably a T.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 441

"How could one hope that one court-martial would undo what
another had done ? . . . Does not the superior idea of discipline,
which is in the very blood of those soldiers, suffice to weaken their
capacity for equity? Whoever says discipline says obedience.
When the Minister of War, the supreme chief, had publicly estab-
lished, amid the acclamations of the National Representatives [the
Chamber of Deputies] the authority of a decided case [la chose
jugee"], could one expect that a court-martial would give Mm the
lie direct1? . . . General Billot had given the judges [of Ester-
hazy] a hint, and they gave their decision, in the same way as they
might go into battle, that is, without arguing. The preconceived
opinion which they brought to the bench was evidently this :
'Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a court-martial; he is
therefore guilty, and we, as a court-martial, cannot declare him
innocent ; we know that to proclaim the guilt of Esterhazy would
be to proclaim the innocence of Dreyfus.' Nothing could move
them from this view.

" They have pronounced an iniquitous sentence which will for-
ever weigh on our courts-martial, and cast suspicion on all their
decisions. The first court-martial [that on Dreyfus] may have been
wanting in intelligence, the second [on Esterhazy] was criminal,
perforce. Its excuse, I repeat, is that the supreme chief had
spoken, declaring the chose jugee to be unassailable, holy, and
superior to man, in such wise that subordinates dared not affirm
the contrary. People speak of the honour of the army, they wish
us to love and respect it. Ah ! certainly, yes, the army which
would rise at the first threat, which would defend our French soil,
the army which is compounded of the whole people, for that we
have only affection and respect. But it is no question of that
army, for the dignity of which we are justly anxious in our desire
for justice. It is a question of the sword, the master that may
be given us, perhaps, to-morrow. And to kiss devoutly the hilt
of the sword, the fetish — no !

"As I have shown, the Dreyfus Affair was the War Office
Affair. An officer of the Staff, denounced by his comrades on the

442 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

Staff, and condemned by the pressure of the Chiefs of the Staff,
cannot come hack as an innocent man without virtually showing
the whole Staff to he guilty. And so the War Office, hy every
imaginable means, hy campaigns in the press, hy communications,
hy influence, has screened Esterhazy in order to ruin Dreyfus a
second time. Ah ! what a vigorous sweep the Republican Gov-
ernment ought to effect in that Jesuits* den, as General Billot
himself once styled iti Where can we find a truly strong and
wisely patriotic Ministry daring enough to recast and renew it
entirely ? How many are the people who, at the thought of war,
trernhle with anguish, knowing in what hands the national defence
is placed I And what a den of base intrigue, tittle-tattle, and
waste has been made of that sacred asylum, where the fate of the
country is decided ! We are scared by the terrible light cast upon
it by the Dreyfus Affair, that human sacrifice of an unfortunate
man, a ' dirty Jew ! ? Ah ! what a seething there has been there
of madness and folly, silly fancies, practices only fit for some base
police service, customs worthy of the inquisition and despotism, the
good pleasure of a few gold*hraided individuals setting their heels
on the nation, and stifling its cry for truth and justice, under the
mendacious and sacrilegious pretext of the interest of the State 1 "

Then, after censuring the press and the riff-raff of Paris,
which supported the evil-doers, Zola declared it was a crime
to poison the minds of the poor and lowly, to inflame re-
actionary passions and intolerance, sheltered the while be-
hind that odious anti-Semitism of which France — the great
Trance of the Bights of Man — would die if she were not
cured of it. " It is a crime," he added, " to exploit patriot-
ism for works of hatred, and finally it is a crime to mate
the sword one's God, when all human science is working for
the coming sway of truth, and justice/' Next he praised M.
Scheurer-Kestner, the great, good, upright man who, in his
honest simplicity, had believed that a statement of the truth

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 443

would suffice for justice to be done, and who was cruelly
punished for his delusion. In like way Colonel Picquart,
in reward for his scrupulousness and respectfulness, was
covered with mud by his superiors. "One even saw this
ignoble thing/' said Zola, referring to Colonel Picquart, " a
French tribunal, after allowing the prosecuting counsel to
heap charges on a witness, to accuse him publicly of every
kind of transgression, ordered the court to be cleared directly
that witness was called in to explain and defend himself.
I declare that this is one crime the more, a crime which
will rouse the public conscience. Decidedly, the military
tribunals have a strange idea of justice ! "

Then after a final appeal to President Faure, who if he
were the prisoner of the Constitution and his entourage,
still had to discharge the duties of a man, Zola declared
that he in no wise despaired of triumph, for truth was on
the march and nothing would stop it. The Affair was only
beginning. On one side were the guilty who wished to
withhold the light ; on the other the servants of justice who
would lay down their lives in order that it might appear.
When truth was buried underground, it gathered strength
there, acquired such explosive force that on bursting forth
it blew up everything. One would see, then, if present
secrecy had not prepared the most resounding of disasters
for some future date. And Zola concluded :

" I accuse Lieutenant-Colonel du Paty de Clam of having "been
the diabolical author of the judicial error, unconsciously I am willing
to believe, and of having defended his baleful work for three years
by the most absurd and culpable machinations. I accuse General
Mercier of having rendered himself an accomplice, at least through
want of firmness, in one of the greatest iniquities of the century.

444 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

I accuse General Billot of Laving held positive proofs of the inno-
cence of Dreyfus, and of having suppressed them, of having perpe-
trated this crime against humanity and against justice with a
political object, and in order to save the compromised Staff, I
accuse General de Boisdeffre and General Gonse of having become
accomplices in the same crime, the former doubtless from clerical
passion,1 the other, perhaps, from that esprit de corps which makes
the War Office a sacred and unassailable ark. I accuse General
de Pellieux and Major Eavary of having made a wicked inquiry,
that is an inquiry of the most monstrous partiality, of which we
have, in the latter's report, an imperishable monument of naiVe
audacity. I accuse the three handwriting experts,2 Sieurs Bel-
homme, Varinard, and Couard, of having made lying and fraudulent
reports, unless medical examination should prove that they suffer
from diseased sight and judgment. I accuse the War Office of having
carried on in the press, particularly in * L'Eclair ' and * L'Echo de
Paris/ an abominable campaign in order to mislead public opinion
and screen its transgressions. Lastly I accuse the first court-
martial of having violated the law by condemning an accused man on
a document which was kept secret ; and I accuse the second court-
martial of having covered that illegality by order ; in its turn com-
mitting the judicial crime of knowingly acquitting a guilty person.
" In preferring these charges I am not ignorant of the fact that
I expose myself to the penalties of Clauses 30 and 31 of the Press
Law of July 29, 1881, which punishes libel. And it is voluntarily
that I expose myself. As for the men whom I accuse, I do not
know them. I have never seen them. I have no resentment or

1 General de Boisdeffre, the Head of the General Staff, was a devout Catho-
lic and an extreme anti-Semite. He had been French ambassador in Russia
and it was there that his hatred of the Jews had taken "birth. Boisdeffre did
not place Dreyfus on the General Staff, but found him on it upon taking
office, the appointment having been made by Boisdeffre's predecessor, General
de Miribel. Boisdeffre was largely under the thumb of Father du Lac, a
Jesuit, his confessor, to whom, he repeatedly confided matters connected with
his duties.

3 Those experts asserted that Dreyfus had traced the bordereau from Ester-
hazy's handwriting in order to saddle him with the guilt of it,

3§MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 445

hatred against them. They are for me mere entities, spirits of
social maleficence. And the act which I accomplish here is only
a revolutionary means of hastening the explosion of truth and
justice. I have but one passion — one for light, in the name of
humanity, which has suffered so much, and which has a right to
happiness. My passionate protest is but the cry of my soul. Let
them have the courage to bring me before an Assize Court, and let
the inquiry be held in broad daylight ! I wait."

This manifesto threw Paris into a state of uproar. Three
hundred thousand copies of the number of " L'Aurore " con-
taining it were sold,1 and long extracts were reproduced by
"Le Sifecle," "La Petite B<5publique," and the few other
newspapers which supported the cause of Dreyfus : the great
bulk of the press, it should be mentioned, being on the
other side. The Clericalists in particular now threw off
all disguise. That same afternoon Count Albert de Mun,
the Papal Nuncio's henchman, " interpellated " the govern-
ment in the Chamber of Deputies, and by 312 yotes against
122 carried a resolution calling on the authorities to put a
stop to "the attacks on the honour of the army.3* The
Prime Minister, M. M41ine, announced on this occasion that
it had been decided to prosecute Zola, but this hardly satis-
fied the more ardent Clericalists, one of whom, M. de Pont-
briand, deputy for Nantes and an acolyte of the Archbishop of
Paris, suggested a few days afterwards that all the members
of the Dreyfus family and the leaders of the " Jew Syndicate " 2

1 A good many copies were bought by anti-Dreyfusites and burnt publicly
in the streets.

2 There never was such a syndicate. Said Zola to Yizetelly more than,
once : " It is a thousand pities there was none! Half the journalists who
denounced us lived on bribes and blackmail. They would willingly have sold
themselves. In fact, in some instances, indirect suggestions to that effect
were made in the belief that we really had a syndicate and millions of francs

446 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

should be cast into Mazas at once! Moreover, a public
meeting held at the Tivoli Hall was largely attended by
priests, Christian brothers, and seminarists of Saint Sulpice,
who were granted special leave for the occasion ; and long
and eager were the shouts of " Down with the Jews ! " raised
by these ecclesiastics, who were finally routed by some
Anarchists among the audience.

During the ensuing fortnight demonstrations and riots
took place in various parts of France, notably in cities where
the priestly cause was strongly represented : Lyons, the city
of Notre Dame de Fourvferes ; Marseilles, the city of Notre
Dame de la Garde ; Nantes, which had sent the anti-Semitic
Pontbriand to represent it in parliament, and Bordeaux,
where clericalism likewise numbered many adherents. Still
more serious disturbances followed in Algeria, where Jews
were beaten, wounded, in a few cases actually killed, their
houses and shops sacked, and a quantity of their property
burnt, or, in some instances at Algiers, thrown into the sea.
Meanwhile Paris was in a state of turmoil, full of shouting
crowds who, when they were not demonstrating before some
Dreyfusite newspaper office, acclaimed every uniform with
the cry of " Vive Tarmde ! " and pursued every suspicious
nose with that of " Down with the Jews ! " Zola was
hooted under his windows, a few of which were broken,
and the police had to protect his house. At the same time,
while there was no little ferocity and violence, a great deal
of Chauvimsme, as well as abundant hypocrisy and coward-
ice in certain political and bourgeois circles, the Esterhazy
court-martial had quite disgusted a number of sensible,

at our disposal. I know that seyeral prominent Jewish financiers paid large
Bums at the time to hare their names kept out of the newspapers.'"

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 447

educated, thinking people, and ten members of the Institute
of Trance, eight professors of the Paris Faculty of Medicine,
a dozen of the Sorbonne, the College de France, and the
£cole Normale, who were joined by numerous professors of
provincial faculties and a good many scientific and literary
men, now for the first time declared in favour of a revision
of the Dreyfus case, thus bringing a welcome support to the
cause for which Yves Guyot, Jean Jaur&s, Francis de Pres-
sens6, Georges Clemenceau, Joseph Eeinach, Eaoul Allier,
and others were fighting in the press. This accession of
strength to the Dreyfusite cause was greeted with sneers by
the professional Jew-baiters, the Clericalist leaders, and the
retrograde UttSrateurs of the Brunetifere coterie who led or
influenced the majority of the Parisians. They nicknamed
their adversaries "the intellectuals," applying the word
derisively ; but it was a welcome nickname, and one well
deserved by the little party of sensible men which counted
in its ranks such notabilities as Br&l, Berthelot, Duclaux,
Giry, Grimaux, Seville, Havet, Trarieux, Monod, Kane, Passy,
Paul Meyer, Anatole France, and Leroy-Beaulieu.

On January 20 Zola at last received a copy of the citation,
which at the suit of the War Minister, General Billot, sum-
moned him and M. Perrenx, the nominal manager of
« L'Aurore," before the Assize Court of the Seine to answer,
not the long string of charges contained in the letter to
President F41ix Faure, but only fifteen lines of it — those
which denounced the Esterhazy court-martial for having
acquitted the major "by order." All the rest was ignored.
The desire of the military authorities was evident, they
still wished to prevent any discussion of the Dreyfus case.
Zola thereupon wrote to General Billot reiterating all his

448 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

charges, but the only effect of this letter, which appeared in
<c I/ Aurora," was to induce the three handwriting experts,
Belhornme, Varinard, and Couard, to bring an action against
the novelist claiming damages for libel. On January 22 the
conduct of the military authorities in shirking Zola's princi-
pal accusations was raised in the Chamber of Deputies, 3 and
wild uproar and fighting ensued until order was restored by
the military guard. Two days later Count von Bulow, the
German Foreign Secretary, declared in the Reichstag:
"Between Captain Dreyfus and any German organs or
authorities, no relations of whatever kind have ever existed."
The Italian and Austrian governments made similar dec-
larations ; but nothing could check the folly of the French
Militarists, or even of the Government, which well knew
through the diplomatic agents of France abroad that in
every court and chancellery of Europe Dreyfus was regarded
as innocent and Esterhazy believed to be guilty. The
foreign press shared that view, and expressions and testi-
monials of sympathy began to reach Zola from all parts of
the world2 He received them gratefully ; but could the
sympathy of foreigners afford adequate solace when four out
of every six Parisians were covering him with mud ? Be-
sides, that very sympathy led to yet more virulent attacks
on him. It was fitting, said his enemies, that he should be

i The discussion was originally raised by M. Cavaignac, one of the evil
geniuses of the Republican party, apropos of an alleged confession made by
Dreyfus to an officer of gendarmerie, bnt M. Jaur&s, the Socialist leader, profited
by the opportunity to bring forward the prosecution of Zola.

3 Mr. David Christie Murray, the novelist, gave a very interesting lecture
on the bordereau at the Egyptian Hall in London, generously placed at his
disposal by Mr. Maskelyne. In the course of his remarks Mr. Murray strongly
praised Zola's attitude, pointing out that after toiling through poverty, priva-
tion, and obloquy, to fame and wealth, he braved imprisonment and ruin out of
pure pity and love of justice.

Penn, from the Garden

E. Zola

Miss & Mrs. Vizetelly

Facsimile card from Zola to Vizetelly

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMEB 449

supported by foreigners, who for the most part rejoiced to see
the French army attacked and insulted I Well, he was wel-
come to their support. France cared nothing what foreigners
might say. She would settle her own affairs in her own
manner, regardless of the opinions of this man Zola, who
was himself a foreigner, some kind of dirty Italian.

He had entrusted his defence to an advocate still young
in years, esteemed by all who knew him, but not as yet
of high public reputation. Born at Eheims, of Alsatian
parents, his father being one of the chief inspectors of the
East of France Eailway Company, Maitre Labori had mar-
ried a lady of Irish extraction, at one time well known
in London musical circles. He was possessed of a tall,
commanding figure, a bright, sunny face, a warm, penetrat-
ing voice. And he was not only very talented and
extremely courageous, but he had the best of qualifications
for the task he undertook : he believed absolutely in the in-
nocence of Dreyfus ; and thus he threw himself into the strug-
gle with a whole-hearted devotion. The reader who knows
something of the great fight he made both for Zola and
for the unhappy Jewish officer, may be surprised to learn
that if Maitre Labori made himself a great name during
that struggle, he reaped little or no immediate pecuniary
gain. Zola's being a genuine political case, he would take
no fee; he was only willing to accept a comparatively
modest sum for his expenses and the services of the young
advocates, his secretaries. In this he was following one of
the lofty traditions on which the French bar prides itself.
Berryer asked no fee when he defended either the min-
isters of Charles X or Louis Napol4on before the peers
of Louis Philippe's time ; Jules Favre asked none, whether

450 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

he defended Orsini or other conspirators, or OBS of the
many journalists or politicians arraigned during the Second
Empire. The same may be said of Joly, who defended
Henri Rochefort ; of Gambetta when he defended Delescluze,
and of many others. Occasionally a present in kind may
be accepted by counsel ; and from a few words that Zola
once let fall, the writer thinks that Maitre Labori may have
been eventually persuaded to accept the title-deed of a little
property which several of those indebted for his services
thought of purchasing and presenting to him.

At the suit of Zola and his fellow-defendant nearly a
hundred witnesses — ministers, officers, deputies, senators,
diplomatists, authors, journalists, handwriting experts, and
others — were summoned to appear at the approaching trial ;
but great efforts were made to prevent many from attending.
Directly the jury-roll was issued, the names and addresses
of those who might have to pronounce on the case were pub-
lished by "Le Petit Journal" and other scurrilous prints;
and numerous threatening letters were sent to these men,
intimating that vengeance would follow if they should
dare to acquit "the Italian." Moreover the Nationalist
and Clerical leaders prepared for demonstrations on a large
scale. A kind of employment office was established on the
boulevards, where hirelings were engaged at the rate of five
francs a day or two francs an evening to shout "Vive
rarmfe," "A bas les Juifs," and "Conspuez Zola!" These
men met with little or no interference from the authorities,
who contented themselves with massing police and munici-
pal guards in and around the Palais de Justice.

The trial began on February 7. The Assize Court was
crowded, Nationalists and anti-Semites preponderating

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 451

among the audience. There were fifteen sittings altogether,
the last being held on February 23. The presiding judge, M.
Delegorgue,1 did his utmost to prevent the witnesses from
giving evidence respecting the Dreyfus case ; and again and
again, when Maitre Labori wished to ask a question, Dele-
gorgue snappishly exclaimed: "The question shall not be
put ! " Nevertheless the judge could not prevent the wit-
nesses and Labori from establishing a number of facts —
among others the illegality of Dreyfus's condemnation, the
insignificance of the evidence upon which he had been
officially condemned, the error committed by the military
judges in respect of the "bordereau, and the certainty that it
was Esterhazy's work. The evidence was, indeed, of such
immense significance that the General Staff thought it
necessary to strike a decisive blow. General de Pellieux
gave the jury a summary of a forged correspondence between
Colonels von Schwarzkoppen and Panizzardi, the former
German and Italian military attaches, this correspondence,
in which Dreyfus was mentioned, having been manufactured
by a certain Lemercier-Picard with the knowledge of the
notorious Colonel Henry. General de Boisdeffre, however,
virtually certified its authenticity, and at the same time
threatened the jury with the resignation of the whole
General Staff if Zola were acquitted. Then Colonel Henry
and Major Lauth accused Picquart of having asserted
Dreyfus's innocence without knowledge of the papers in the
case, and of having invented one of them in order to ruin
Esterhazy. Maitre Labori was not allowed to question the

1 He was the son of a certain Delegorgue, who after being known as the
"elephant hunter " in the days of Louis Philippe, became a great friend of
Alfred de Musset with whom he often played chess at the Cafe" de la Eegence.

452 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE

generals, or answer them. Great indignation was expressed
when Picquart had the courage to say that a Panizzajdi-
Schwarzkoppen letter mentioned by General de Pellieux
was a forgery. Yet not only was such the case, but some
weeks previously the forgery had been revealed to the
embassies of Italy and Germany, most probably by Lemer-
cier-Picard, the forger himself. Count Tornielli and Coiint
Miinster in their turn had revealed it to M. Hanotaux, the
French Foreign Minister, demanding his word of honour that
no use should be made of it. M. Hanotaux communicated
this revelation to his colleagues, and even sent a written note
about it to the Ministry of War. It has been said, too, that
on the day after General de Pellieux's deposition' M. Hano-
taux proposed to suspend the proceedings in Zola's trial in
order to look for and prosecute the forgers, but that his
fellow-ministers hesitated from fear of a military movement.
Anyhow, the episode ended disastrously for Lemercier-
Picard. On March 3 he was found hanging in his room, his
feet dangling on the floor. All his papers had disappeared
before the police came to take possession of the corpse.
Yet, according to the authorities, it was a case of suicide ! *
The trial was full of stirring episodes. The Nationalists
who crowded the court vented their passions freely, shout-
ing, jeering, and groaning at almost everybody who expressed
any view favourable to Dreyfus or derogatory to the swag-
gering, gold-laced officers, who when questioned either re-
fused to answer or perjured themselves with the audacity
of men confident of impunity. Zola, who was insulted day

1 In the above passage tlie able summary of the Dreyfus case (by Sir God-
frey Lushington, it has been said) published by " The Times," October 14,
1898, has been followed. For all the details of Zola's trial, see " Le Proces
Zola, Compte Bendu in extenso" etc., 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, Stock, 1898.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 453

after day, put a brave face on It all, and only on a few occa-
sions did he give utterance to his disgust, protesting against
tke manner in which he was mobbed in the streets, and
against the denial of justice which he encountered in court,
where he claimed the same liberty to defend himself as was
accorded to thieves and assassins. At one sitting, when
General de Pellieux made a slighting remark, the novelist
turned on him haughtily : a There are several ways of serv-
ing France," said he. '* A man may do so with the sword
or with the pen. If you have won victories, so have I. I
bequeath the name of fimile Zola to posterity, which will
choose between us ! " De Pellieux made no retort to those
proud words. In that hour of mendacious triumph he did
not foresee the day when he would be virtually disgraced,
consigned to an obscure garrison in Brittany, to die there,
tortured, as we know, by the deepest remorse. Again, at
one moment towards the close of the trial, when the storm
of execration thundered more loudly than usual in Zola's
ears, the novelist turned towards the bellowers, and with
one word branded them : " You cannibals ! " he cried, "you
cannibals ! "

Except on two or three occasions when the rain fell in
torrents, great precautions had to be taken for Zola's safety.
Senator Ranc, an old conspirator and no mean judge of dan-
ger, subsequently stated that to his knowledge the novelist
repeatedly had some very narrow escapes. The carriage in
which he drove to and from the Palais de Justice was often
pursued by a hostile mob, which the police had to charge
and disperse. On some occasions policemen mounted on
bicycles escorted the carriage, and Zola was always accom-
panied by a little body-guard of friends : H Fasquelle, his

454 feMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

publisher, M. Bruneau, the composer, and particularly M, Fer-
nand Desmoulin, the accomplished engraver, to whom one
owes a fine portrait of Zola, produced at the time when the
Rougon-Macquart series was completed. Throughout the
tumultuous period of the trial M. Pesmoulin was invariably
by his friend's side with a six-shooter in readiness. Madame
Zola, who also attended the proceedings, was in like way
escorted by vigilant friends. The horror of it all had at
first seemed more than she could bear, but she strove to be
brave and calm. After all, as she repeated, her husband
was doing his duty.

On the thirteenth day of the trial, after the speech for the
prosecution, Zola read an address to the jury, in which, after
referring to all the pressure employed to secure his convic-
tion, he sketched broadly and graphically the situation into
which the Affair had cast France. He denied that he had
insulted the army : those who had done so were the men
who mingled with their acclamations the cry of "Down
with the Jews!" "And they have even shouted, 'Vive
Esterhazy !'" he added. "Great God! the nation of Saint
Louis, of Bayard, of Condd, and of Hoche ; the nation that
can boast a hundred gigantic victories; the nation of the
great wars of Republican and Imperial days; the nation
whose strength, grace, and generosity have dazzled the
world, has shouted 'Long live Esterhazy !' That is a stain
of which only our effort for truth and justice can wash us
clean." Then after speaking sarcastically of the alleged
" Jewish Syndicate," said to have been formed to bribe people
and buy evidence, he appealed to the common sense of the
jury, warning them they would make a great mistake if
they imagined that the campaign would be stopped by any

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 455

verdict of guilty in his case. As for himself, he shrugged
his shoulders at the insinuations that he had sold himself
to the Jews, that he was a liar and a traitor. Then he
continued :

" I have no political, no sectarian passions. I am a writer. I
have toiled all my life, and shall return to the ranks to-morrow to
resume my interrupted work. How stupid it is of some to call me
an Italian, I the son of a French mother, brought up by Beauceron
grandparents. ... I lost my father when I was seven years old
and did not visit Italy till I was fifty-four. , . . Still that does not
prevent me from feeling very proud that my father belonged to
Venice, the resplendent city whose ancient glory rings through
every mind. But, even if I were not French, would not the forty
volumes in the French language which I have scattered by mil-
lions of copies throughout the world, would not they suffice to
make me a Frenchman, one useful to the glory of France ? "

Having thus dealt with the personal question, Zola pro-
ceeded to plead for Dreyfus, for equity and enlightenment
which alone could restore peace and order in France. And,
asking the jurymen if they wished to see France isolated in
Europe, he showed them the foreign nations already cast-
ing doubts on French humanity and equity. Next, amid
increasing interruptions, he continued as follows :

"Alas! gentlemen, like so many others, you await perhaps a
flash of lightning, the proof of the innocence of Dreyfus descend-
ing from heaven like a thunderbolt. Truth does not come upon
us in that way; as a rule, some research and intelligence are
needed to find her. (Jeers.) The proof! Ah! we well know
where it might be found. But it is only in the depths of our
souls that we think of that, and our patriotic anguish proceeds
from a dread lest France should have exposed herself to receiving
that proof as a slap, after compromising the honour of her army

456 tMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

by a lie. (Loud protests.) But I wish to declare plainly that if
we notified to tlie prosecution the names of certain members of
foreign embassies as witnesses, we had no intention of summon-
ing those persons to this court. Some people smiled at our
audacity. But I do not think that anybody smiled at the Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs, for there they must have understood our
object. (Protests.) We merely wished to indicate to those who
know the whole truth that we knew it also. It is circulating in
aU the embassies, it will soon be known to everybody. . . . The
Government which is ignorant of nothing, the Government which,
like ourselves, is convinced of the innocence of Dreyfus (Loud pro-
tests.) can, without any risk, and whenever it pleases, find wit-
nesses who will at last throw light on everything.

" Dreyfus is innocent, I swear it. (The proof! The proof! )
I stake my life on it, I stake my honour on it. At this solemn
hour, in presence of this tribunal which represents human justice,
before you, gentlemen of the jury, who personify the nation, be-
fore all France, before the whole world, I swear that Dreyfus is
innocent. (Uproar.) And by my forty years of labour, by the
authority which that labour may have given me, I swear that
Dreyfus is innocent. (Violent protests.) And by all I have ac-
quired, by the name I have made for myself, by my works which
have contributed to the expansion of French literature, I swear
that Dreyfus is innocent* (Protests and hisses.) May all that
crumble, may my works perish, if Dreyfus is not innocent. He is
innocent ! (Prolonged uproar.)

" Everything seems to be against me, the two Chambers, the
civil authorities, the military authorities, the newspapers which
circulate the most widely, and public opinion which they have
poisoned. And on my side I have only an ideal of truth and
justice. And I am quite easy in mind, for I shall conquer. I did
not wish my country to remain amid mendacity and injustice.
You may strike me here, France will some day thank me for
having helped to save her honour." (General tumult. Repeated
shouts of "The proof I Give the proof! ")

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 457

Zola, as we know, was not an orator. Emotion made his
voice tremble as he began to read his declaration, but com-
posure gradually came to him, followed towards the close
by real strength of manner. And though, as the foregoing
extracts indicate, many sentences were followed by violent
protests and ridiculous shouts of "Proof! proof!" — ridicu-
lous by reason of the fact that the judge and the military
witnesses had done their utmost to prevent any proof from
being supplied — the audience listened with great attention.
Once Zola's voice cracked as he tried to give emphasis to a
word, and his listeners then jeered him, but, on the whole,
he did far better than had been expected by those who
knew how difficult it was for him to speak in public.

He was followed by Maitre Labori, who had fought most
manfully and skilfully throughout the whole proceedings,
and who now speedily subdued the hostile and noisy audi-
ence. Whenever, at the outset of his great speech, the
Nationalists laughed at a statement or an argument, coun-
sel repeated it in a yet more emphatic manner than before.
Groans arose when, referring to his client, he said: "A
patriot like Zola"; and at once, turning like a lion, he
repeated the words : " Yes, a patriot like Zola — a patriot
with a braver heart, a clearer vision, a loftier love of his
own land than is owned by any of the shallow-minded
swallowers of phrases who rage at him. One of these days
you will recognise your own folly and his greatness." Then
the brave advocate paused for a few seconds, as if challeng-
ing a new outburst But there was complete silence. " Ah,
well, then," he said, with a touch of fighting laughter in his
voice, "I will continue." And having conquered his audi-
ence he reverted to his argument. His address was con-

458 J&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

tinned on the morrow, February 22, when, demonstrating
the accuracy of Zola's assertion that Dreyfus was innocent,
he showed that the whole procedure of the 1894 trial had
been carried out by officers whose excitement of mind
had verged on positive derangement, and that it was con-
sequently valueless. Towards the end of his argument,
which was very close and pregnant, the anti-Semites once
more became uproarious, but the manifestations against the
advocate brought on counter-manifestations in his favour
from the Dreyfusites, who had mustered in some force that
day. The account of Dreyfus's degradation, the unhappy
man's letters and protests, which Maltre Labori read, pro-
duced a powerful impression. When he referred to the
extraordinary traps which Du Paty de Clam had set in
the hope of extracting from his prisoner something which
might be interpreted as a confession, everybody seemed sud-
denly won over to the Dreyf usite cause ; and acclamations
again followed a passage in which counsel reminded those
in high places, who assumed sucli a hypocritical " non pos-
sumus" attitude towards the case, that the most pilloried
and execrated name in all history was that of Pontius
Pilate. Again, on the morrow, Maftre Labori took up the
thread of his discourse, which ended with a fine peroration.
But this time, the Dreyfusites being altogether outnumbered,
vehement protests mingled with the applause which saluted
him. After M. Olemenceau had spoken amid frequent
tumultuous interruptions for Zola's fellow-defendant, M.
Perrenx of "L'Aurore," the jurors withdrew to consider
their verdict which, by a majority of seven to five} was

1 In France it is not necessary for all twelve jurymen to "be of the same
mind.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 459

one of guilty. It was seven o'clock in the evening; the
court-room, the whole Palais de Justice indeed, its precincts
and the adjoining streets, were crowded with people among
whom the professional anti-Semites and many officers were
conspicuous. Yells of triumph greeted the news of the ver-
dict, and were renewed when it was known that in Zola's
case the maximum penalty of a year's imprisonment with a
fine of three thousand francs had been applied.1 And there
earne loud and ominous shouts of "Death to the Jewsl
death to the dirty Jews ! " followed by scuffles and affrays
which the police, two thousand in number, could scarcely
check.

Zola took his sentence quietly, his wife fell weeping on
his neck and his friends surrounded him, pressing his hands.
At last he was smuggled out of court and carried to a
friend's house, where he spent the evening, while half Paris
was demonstrating in one and another direction. The ver-
dict and sentence were naturally approved by the great
majority of people who, having as yet no notion that several
officers of the General Staff had deliberately perjured them-
selves, still put all their trust in those brave defenders of
the country. On the following day, however, the foreman
of the jury stated, significantly enough, that the verdict had
been given on -the sole ground that Zola had gone beyond
what was permissible by insulting a court-martial. As for
the revision of the Dreyfus case, he, the foreman, was not
opposed to it, indeed he hoped it would be brought about
by legal means. Thus the triumph of the Militarists was
really only surface deep.

1 M. Perrenx was sentenced to the same fine and four months' imprison-
ment.

460 6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Zola gave notice of appeal on various grounds, and then
turned to Ms novel « Paris," the last proofs of which he had
quietly corrected during the interval between his letter,
" J'Accuse," and his trial The work was originally to have
appeared in January, but was delayed by Zola's participation
in the Dreyfus case. Writing to Vizetelly on February 6,
the evening before he went into court, he said ; " ' Paris/ will
only be published on March 1. Please therefore warn Mr.
Chatto at once and tell him that this date is final. . . . I am
not of your opinion.1 I think that the book will be more
successful if we allow the public emotion to calm down a
little. Besides, we shall not be ready till March 1 "

"Paris" which had been appearing serially in "Le
Journal/' was issued, then, on that date.2 In France the
sales were small, for many who had long read Zola with
approval now turned from the alleged insulter of the army,
the defender of Jewish traitors. But the demand from
abroad, whence addresses of sympathy had been raining
upon the novelist for six weeks past, was a large one, and
thus he did not immediately suffer any great pecuniary loss
from Ms championship of an obnoxious cause. Unfor-
tunately the lessons which the work inculcated scarcely
reached those for whom they were primarily intended, that
is the Parisians themselves, all " good patriots " having now
agreed to shun Zola and his works.

A period of less disorder but of much controversy, marked
by some more revelations, followed his trial. Then on

1 At the request of the English publishers Vizetelly had written suggest-
ing that the book ought to be published as soon as possible, that is, while the
author's case was attracting so much attention.

2 "Paris," Faaquelle, 1898, 18mo, 608 pages. Some copies on Dutch
and other special papers j a few presentation ones in 2 vols., 8vo. Eighty-
eighth thousand in 1899 ; ninety-fourth thousand in 1903.

6MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER 461

April 2, the Cour de Cassation, having examined his ap-
peal, quashed his conviction on the ground that the pro-
. ceedings ought to have been instituted, not by the Minister
of War, but by the court-martial which he had been accused
of libelling. This decision quite enraged the military author-
ities. The court-martial in question became alarmed and
almost shrank from taking proceedings, but pressure was
put on it by General de Pellieux and others who on April
8 prevailed on its members to take the necessary action,
and at the same time apply to the Grand Chancellor of the
Legion of Honour to strike Zola off the roll — a suggestion
which the ineffable Drumont had repeatedly made in " La
Libre Parole." When on April 11 Zola received a fresh
citation, he found that he was summoned before the Ver-
sailles Assizes, and that only three lines of his famous letter,
" J'Accuse," were now incriminated ! The trial was fixed
for May 23, on which day anti-Semites and Dreyfusites
flocked to Versailles. But Maitre Labori impeached the
jurisdiction of the court on the ground that Zola's offence
had been committed in a newspaper printed and published
in Paris, and on a decision being given against him, the
Cour de Cassation was again appealed to. A further delay
then ensued.

On May 29, however, an ignoble attack was made on
Zola by a certain Ernest Judet of " Le Petit Journal," in
which he had been carrying on an unscrupulous campaign
against the cause of justice. The attack took the form of
some alleged revelations respecting the novelist's father, who
was said to have been a thief. Judet printed documents
derived from somebody at the War Office — presumably
Colonel Henry — which were subsequently shown to have

462 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER

been doctored or forged; and the story which he told, in
his own fashion, was that of Francois Zola's connection
with the French Foreign Legion. It has been dealt with
in the first chapter of this volume ; but the incident must
be mentioned here, for it gave the accused man's son a great
and painful shock. The undoubted object of this infamous
publication was to discredit his efforts on behalf of Dreyfus
and to damn him in public opinion. But Zola retorted with
a glowing protest in " L'Aurore," and before long he and
Judet were prosecuting one another for libel. The sequel
will be told hereafter.

Pending the decision in the second appeal made to the
Cour de Cassation, the turmoil in France continued.
Numerous illegal and iniquitous acts were perpetrated, pro-
fessors who had espoused the cause of justice were summa-
rily dismissed, Colonel Picquart was turned out of the army,
M. Joseph Reinach lost his rank as an officer of reserves, the
General Staff virtually ruling the country in spite of the
various discoveries and revelations which tended, in an in-
creasing degree, to prove the innocence of Dreyfus and the
guilt of Esterhazy. At the general elections, which super-
vened about this time, only a few candidates, such as M.
Jaur&s and M. Eeinach, dared to speak of justice. It was a
fear of those elections and the constituencies that had pre-
viously led many deputies to shrink from the cause of re-
vision. However, though the Nationalists gained by the
elections, they did not swamp the Kepublic. M. M^line,
falling from power, was replaced as Prime Minister by
M. Brisson, and General Billot as War Minister by M.
Cavaignac. This politician, a man of some ability but
much greater self-conceit, imagined that he would put an

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 463

end to the Affair once and for all. On July 7, primed with
papers provided by Colonel Henry and in which he foolishly
believed, he delivered an extraordinary speech which the
Chamber of Deputies enthusiastically ordered to be placarded
throughout France. In this effusion, in which Dreyfus was
alleged to have confessed his guilt, use was again made of
the Schwarzkoppen-Panizzardi forgeries, as well as of the
paper about a spy called D, to which reference has been
made previously. According to Cavaignac, those docu-
ments ended the affair for ever, and Zola therefore might
be finally judged and condemned.

The novelist's appeal on the question of jurisdiction had
been rejected on June 16, a new trial at Versailles being
fixed for July 18. In the interval, that is on July 9, two
days after Cavaignac's declarations, the three handwriting
experts succeeded in the proceedings they had brought
against Zola for libel He was sentenced to undergo two
months* imprisonment, to pay a fine of two thousand francs,
and damages to the extent of five thousand francs to each
plaintiff. But an appeal being entered, execution did not
follow immediately. On July 16, two days before returning
to Versailles, Zola issued a fresh manifesto, this time in the
form of a letter to M. Brisson, the new Prime Minister,
whom he upbraided for lending himself to Cavaignac's mock
inquiry into the Dreyfus case and attaching importance to
the alleged confession of the unhappy prisoner of Devil's
Island. Since then we have learnt from M. Brisson him-
self l that he had to contend with many difficulties, the pres-
sure exercised by President Faure, who was entirely on the
side of the Militarists, the deceit and trickery of his colleague

1 "Souvenirs," by Henri Brisson, published by " Le Sikcle," 1903.
tetter is in "La Yerit£ en Marche."

464 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

Cavaignac, the diffidence of other ministers, and the men-
dacity of various officers. M. Brisson was sincerely desirous
of doing his duty by furthering the revision of the Dreyfus
case, and would have done it sooner than he did if so many
obstacles had not been placed in his way. One part of the
novelist's letter he certainly took to heart. Zola protested
against being mobbed by hireling anti-Semites, and as he
knew that a great expedition of those roughs to Versailles
had been planned for the day of the new trial, he asked
that proper measxires might be taken for the preservation of
order. This was done, gendarmes and troops, as well as
police, being assembled.

The novelist returned, then, to Versailles with his counsel
and his co-defendant, M. Perrenx, the publisher of " L'Aurore,"
who remained a kind of lay figure throughout the whole pro-
ceedings, being properly remunerated by his newspaper for
the inconvenience he incurred- Zola and his advisers had
now resolved to keep the Affair open as long as possible,
this being the more advisable as Esterhazy, in consequence
of the denunciations of a relative, had now been arrested
with his mistress by order of an investigating magistrate ;
a similar fate also befalling Colonel Picquart, against whom
M. Cavaignac had preferred a frivolous charge in conse-
quence of his public declaration that two of the documents
read by the minister to the Chamber on July 7 did not
apply to Dreyfus at all and that a third was a forgery.
Those incidents pointed to further developments, and more-
over, already at this date, Zola and others had reason to
suspect that the forgery in question might be the work of
Colonel Henry,1 whom they had come to regard with great

1 So stated to Vizetelly by Zola a few days after his arrival in England.

Photo by V. R Vizetellv

Emile Zola, Sept. 1898

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEB 465

suspicion, he being at the head of that Secret Intelligence
Bureau whence so many strange documents emanated.

Thus on July 18, at Versailles, Maitre Labori raised a
fresh demurrer, claiming that as a court-martial was not a
civil personality holding property it could not sue. This
being disallowed, an application for leave to prove the whole
of Zola's " J* Accuse" instead of merely the three indicted
lines was submitted. Again came an adverse ruling, where-
upon Zola, Perrenx, and their counsel quitted the court,
allowing judgment to go by default.

There was some commotion, but as soon as the novelist
and Maitre Labori had entered their carriage, a squadron of
cavalry swept down on the crowd, and this enabling the
vehicle to escape, its occupants were driven to the residence
of M. Charpentier, Zola's friend and former publisher, in the
Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris. There, Madame Zola
and M. Clemenceau being present, a council of war was
held. It was shown that Zola must not remain in France,
for if the sentence by default were signified to him person-
ally he would have to enter an appearance against it within
a few days, and would not be entitled to make default a
second time. In order to keep the Affair open he must
avoid service for a while, which was only to be done by
quitting France. He consented to that course, and London,
was chosen as his destination.1 A few toilet articles were
pressed upon him, and his wife emptied her purse into his ;
then, after dining, he drove to the Northern Eailway Station,
where he caught the express starting for Calais at nine P. M.
He secured a compartment which had no other occupant,

1 M. Perrenx also had to leave France, and the writer believes that he
went to Belgium.

466 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEAIER

and journeyed to London -without mishap, putting up at the
Grosvenor Hotel, which M. Clemenceau had recommended to
him.1 The same day (July 19} he posted the following note
to Ernest Vizetelly at Merton :

"Tell nobody in the world, and particularly no newspaper, that
I am in London. And oblige me by coming to see me to-morrow,
Wednesday, at Grosvenor Hotel. You will ask for M. Pascal.
And, above all, absolute silence, for the most serious interests are
at stake.*'

Vizetelly kept the appointment, and found Zola with M.
Desmonlin and M. Bernard Lazare, who had followed him
to London. The last named returned to Paris immediately,
but M. Desmoulin, who spoke a little English, remained with
his faiend for about a fortnight. The first question that
arose was whether the English law would afford any facilities
for the service of the sentence on Zola, and Vizetelly there-
fore fetched a legal friend, Mr. !F. W. Wareham,2 with whom
a consultation was held at the Grosvenor HoteL Mr. Ware-
ham had already dealt indirectly with the Dreyfus case at
a time when a mysterious adventurer had proposed to
Vizetelly to fit out a ship at Bristol, and attempt (& la,
Captain Kettle) to rescue the prisoner from Devil's Island.
Vizetelly had then had some reason to doubt the lona, fides

1 The account of Zola's sojourn in England will here be brief, ike writer
having already given a full one in his book * ' With Zola in England, a Story
of Exile," "by E. A. Yizetelly, London, Chatto, and Leipsie, Tauehnitz, 1899,
Further particulars will be found in various papers by the writer: "Some
Recollections of Zola" ("Pall Mall Magazine," Yol XXIX, No. 117, January,
1903) and "Zola at "Wimbledon" (" Wimbledon and Merton Annual," No. 1,
1904), A full account of the Christmas Zola spent in England (1898) was
given in "M. A. P., Vol. IX, p. 235:" "Emile Zola in Exile,"-by Marie
Suzanne (Mrs. E. A.) Vizetelly.

* Of Messrs. Gregson, "Wareham, Waugh, and Gregson, solicitors.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEB 467

of the proposer of the scheme, who, it had seemed to Mm,
might be an emissary of Dreyfus's enemies, anxious to in-
veigle Zola through his English representative into some
illegal action which might ruin the cause. And indeed,
after being subjected to a severe examination, the man
vanished, as Hans Breitman would have said, into the
UwigkeiL

At the consultation with Mr. Wareham it was found that,
quite apart from the English laws, the French authorities
claimed the right to serve process on their own subjects
all the world over ; and it therefore seemed best to remove Zola
from London immediately, particularly as that very day he
had been recognised by an English lady in the Buckingham
Palace Boad,1 besides which some suspicion seemed to have
been roused at the Grosvenor Hotel. Finally Mr. Wareham,
whose services at this time were of great value, offered his
own house, 1 Prince's Eoad, Wimbledon, as a provisional
retreat. Zola's stay there was brief, however, for Wimbledon
soon seemed to be too populous a place and too near both to
London and to Merton, where Vizetelly resided, for it was
virtually a certainty that the latter would soon be besieged
by journalists eager to know what had become of Zola.
His disappearance from France had created an extraordi-
nary sensation. His presence was reported now in Switzer-
land, now in Norway, now in Holland, now In Belgium,
now in other parts of the world, but at last some English
newspapers found the right track, which they were good
enough to follow no farther than the Oatlands Park Hotel,

1 It fortunately turned out that the lady was the wife of Mr. Percy Spal-
ding of Messrs. Chatto and Windus, Zola's English publishers, and thus the
matter went no further.

468 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

near Weybridge, whither Zola and his friend Desinoulin
were removed on quitting Wimbledon.

Through the agency of Mr. Wareham, a furnished country-
house was next secured for the novelist, this being Penn,
Oatlands Chase, the residence of Mr. E. G-. Venables, and
it was there that Zola settled down to write his novel
" F<3condit6," the first volume of his new series, "Les
Quatre fivangiles," which he had been quietly planning
amid all the turmoil of the Dreyfus Affair, — a positive
proof of the superiority of his mind, for not one man in a
hundred would have* had the courage, the coolness, or the
power to take up a great literary task and isolate himself
in study at every available moment in such extraordinary
circumstances as those in which Zola had found himself, —
insulted, befouled, and condemned. He had now also
been suspended from the Legion of Honour, he had sacri-
ficed large sums of money, and his prospects were by no
means bright. He could only hope that time might elicit
the truth and bring about a revulsion of feeling in his
favour. Meanwhile, he turned to his usual panacea, work,
diverted his mind as far as possible from the great cam-
paign, which he knew would be conducted ably by all
his fellow-fighters in Paris, and began to pen his book on
the causes of the depopulation of France.

M. Desmoulin went to Paris to fetch the materials for
" F^condit^ " ; servants were engaged and other arrange-
ments made by Mrs. Vizetelly ; and her daughter, Violette,
— a Parisienne by birth, whose first words had been lisped
in French, — went to live with Zola to act as his inter-
preter, and so far as her youthfulness permitted, take charge
of housekeeping matters, A bicycle was provided for

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 469

Zola, and when he was not writing or reading he and
his young ward pedalled through the country around
"Walton and Weybridge. On those occasions Zola made
frequent use of a camera which M. Desmoulin had brought
from France, and the writer holds a large collection of
photographs taken by him, — little views of villages, com-
mons, farms, churches, reaches of the Thames, glimpses
of the Wye, Windsor Castle, the Crystal Palace, and so
forth.

Eventually, to give him some solace amid his loneli-
ness, it was arranged that the little boy and girl to whom
reference has been made in a previous chapter should be
brought to England and stay with him for a short time.
Madame Zola also managed to travel backward and for-
ward on various occasions. When the tenancy at Penn
expired, another house called " Sumrnerfield," with large
secluded grounds, on Spinney Hill at Addlestone, was se-
cured for Zola. Here, still writing " F^eondit4" he remained
until late in the autumn of 1898. M. Charpentier was
for a few days a visitor ; an excursion was made to Windsor
and a few other places ; but the novelist's life would have
been not only very retired but also quite peaceful If it
had not been for the acute emotion into which he was
thrown, the shocks he experienced every now and then,
as the result of some important news from Paris. The
friends who wished to communicate with him had to
forward their letters to Mr. Wareham, Zola's actual address
being known only to the latter, the Vizetellys, M. Char-
pentier, and a Wimbledon gentleman, Mr. A. W. Pamplin,
whose services had been required. The "master," as one
often called him, assumed at that time a variety of names

4*70 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

which were suggested by Vizetelly, — the latter objecting to
(t Pascal," the first Zola had taken, for it might have proved
a guide to any French process-server acquainted with " Le
Docteur Pascal," the novelist's well-known book. Vizetelly
therefore proposed some names which would not attract
much attention and might pass as being either English
or French. At Oatlands Park and Penn, therefore, Zola
was known as Beauchamp ; at Summerfield as Eoger (akin
to Eogers) ; and at the Queen's Hotel, Norwood, whither he
ultimately removed, as Eichard, which suggested Eichards.
Vizetelly was in constant communication with him and fre-
quently at Penn and Summerfield. At other times hardly
a day passed without an exchange of notes, mostly, how-
ever, on trivial little matters connected with Zola's re-
quirements, — his bicycle, his photographs, the books he
wanted, a supply of manuscript paper, some passing trouble
with a servant, the difficulty of getting fish, or the replies
to be given to journalists or others. Here is a rather more
interesting note which Zola wrote on July 29, when he
was moving from the Oatlands Park Hotel, where he had
attracted some little attention :

I am worried that I cannot occupy Penn until Monday, for I
feel that my stay here without Madame Beauchamp,1 whose
arrival I announced, is beginning to seem strange. However it
is necessary to accept the situation. To throw people off the
scent this is what we must do. Let me be fetched on Monday
between two and three in the afternoon with one of the convey-
ances at the station [Walton-on-Thames], not one belonging to
the hotel. The vehicle can wait while I pay my bill, and after-
wards we can all drive to the station as if I were going to Lon-

1 Madame Zola had "been expected, "but, "being watched, had been unable
as yet to leave Paris.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

don. At the station you wiE have left the trunk which will
then certainly have arrived from Paris at Wareham's house or
yours. On reaching the station from the hotel, one can claim
the valise, wait awhile, then take another conveyance and drive
to the house [Penn]. For my part I will not get into that sec-
ond conveyance, I will go to the house on foot. I think that will
be the wisest course.

On the other hand, we shall have to tell a little tale here.
For instance, you might say that as Madame Beauchamp is de-
tained in France beside a sick relative for a longer time than I
anticipated and I feel very much bored alone [M. Desmouiin had
gone to France] , I am, going back to London to stay with some
friends till she arrives. And you might add that if we wish to
come back and spend a month here, we will warn them by letter,
inquiring if they have a suitable room. When you come you might
bring me forty postage stamps for France and ten for London.
Again thanks for your devotion, and very cordially yours.

EM. BEAUCHAMP,

If you read any serious news from France in the newspapers,
let me know at once — Desmouiin has arrived at this very mo-
ment with the trunk. I shall be better able to wait now that
my friend is here.

Among other notes of about the same date are the fol-
lowing:

My dear Confrere — What French books have you? Can you
lend me La Brnyere's " Caraeteres " and Stendhal's "Chartreuse
de Parme" — not his "Rouge et Noir"?

I have received the books, and thank you infiniment, for they
helped me to spend a good day yesterday. I shall expect you
to-morrow at six o'clock, and we will take a decision about the
house. My homage to Madame Vizetelly, Affectionately yours,1

1 This note was signed "imile Zola, "hut thinking that imprudent, her
carried Ms pen violently over the signature, producing an extraordinary com-

472 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

My dear Confrere, — Please let me have six boxes of photo-
graphic plates similar to the others. Cau you lend me "Les
Chouans," " Cesar Birotteau," "La Recherche de PAbsohi," "Les
Illusions perdues," by Balzac. If not, please buy them — the
edition at 1 fr. 25 c.

In addition to books, Zola was of course kept well sup-
plied with newspapers, both ITrench and English. Vizetelly
procured him an English grarnmar for French students and
other works, and with this help he picked up sufficient
knowledge of the English language to understand the news
telegraphed from Paris about the Dreyfus case. In all such
news he naturally took the keenest interest. On August 31
Vizetelly received from Paris a telegram to be transmitted
to him, — a telegram to this effect : " Be prepared for a great
success." It greatly puzzled Zola when it reached him, for
there was nothing in the newspapers he had seen to which
it could refer. However, a score of possibilities in connec-
tion with the Dreyfus case immediately occurred to him,
and he spoke of them in presence of Vizetelly's daugh-
ter, passing from one surmise to another and becoming
quite feverish as his impatience to know the meaning of
the mysterious "wire" increased. His young companion
was undoubtedly upset by his strange excitement, which
gained on her also, in such wise that she passed a very
restless night, beset repeatedly by a dream in which she
fancied herself in some strange, big, dark place where a

Hnation of Hots and scratches. Sometimes lie signed t( Em. Beauchamp," at
others "J. Beauchamp," and "B." Later, he ventured on a "Z." Very
few of his notes of that time bear his name in full. Moreover, for fear of
the Cabinet Noir (the petit "bleu affair showed that one existed), his letters
to Paris were usually addressed by Yizetelly to a person who transmitted
them to those for whom they were intended.

EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 473

man lay on the ground surrounded by people who raised
numerous exclamations in the French language. In the
midst of it all, moreover, she saw Zola waving his arms and
looking well satisfied. He, on the following morning, hav-
ing heard her calling in her sleep, spoke to her of it with
some concern, and she then told him of her dream, of which
at first he could make neither head nor tail. But shortly
afterwards, when the newspapers arrived, he found in them
an account of the arrest and confession of Colonel Henry,
the forger, followed by a brief telegram : " Paris, Midnight.
Colonel Henry has been found dead in his cell at Mont
Val&ien."

The telegram which Vizetelly had transmitted to him was
then explained : it had certainly referred to Henry's arrest
and confession. As for the announcement of the colonel's
death following the story of Violette Vizetelly Js curious
dream, one can only say that this may have been merely
a coincidence, though Zola and others were certainly im-
pressed by it. When the writer related the incident in a
previous work,1 in a more detailed manner than he has done
here, some critics declared that he taxed their credulity, par-
ticularly as he was unwilling to allow the case to be tested.
But he must adhere to what he stated then. If he depre-
cated investigation it was solely because, as a parent, he did
not wish to perturb or to encourage any morbidity of mind
in a curiously impressionable girl of sixteen, on whose
account, and in much the same connection, he had pre-
viously experienced some anxiety, which later years have
happily dispelled.

After Henry's death Zola was in hopes of soon returning

1 " "With Zola in England," p. 135

474 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOEMEE,

to France, but Ms friends urged him to remain where he
was, for his name was still like a torch which might re-
kindle the conflagration. Moreover, as the revision of the
Dreyfus case was delayed for some weeks longer, Zola
again began to feel anxious. Important incidents were
certainly occurring in France. Scarcely had General Zurlin-
den replaced M. Cavaignac as War Minister when Ester-
hazy took to flight, anticipating, no doubt, the important
communications respecting certain forgeries in the Dreyfus
case which Colonel Picquart made to the Minister of Justice
a few days later. At last, on Sunday, September 15, some
indication of what was about to occur in Paris appeared in
a few of the London papers which Yizetelly sent to Zola,
who replied:

"Thank you for sending the papers by Eene.1 Details are
wanting evidently; but, to my mind, the report is decisive, re-
vision is certain. It is now only necessary to have patience, —
patience which will perhaps have to be of some duration. * . .
I am rather poorly to-day, it is one of those nervous crises which
torture me whenever I work too much or when I have under-
gone too great a shock."

Two days later General Zurlinden, who had stubbornly
opposed revision at the Council of Ministers, resigned the
office of War Minister (in which he was succeeded by
General Chanoine) and resumed the duties of Military
Governor of Paris ; in which capacity, to revenge himself for
the recent disclosures of Colonel Picquart, he cast the latter
into a military prison. Then, on September 23, a process-
server appeared at Zola's house to levy execution in virtue

1 Victor Rene* Yizetelly, the writer's son.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 475

of the judgment obtained by the handwriting experts.1 All
those incidents — and also the Fashoda trouble, which if it
had ended badly would have compelled Zola to leave Eng-
land— affected the novelist's health, but he fretted more
particularly on account of the ailing state of a pet dog, — a
toy Pomeranian named the Chevalier de Perlinpinpin, but
familiarly called Pinpin only — which he had been obliged
to leave in Paris, foreign dogs not being admitted into
England. Madame Zola was then in Paris in charge of the
little animal and did everything possible for it, but it
pined for its master, whose constant companion it had been,
on whose writing-table and in whose wastepaper basket it
had been for years accustomed to lie.

Zola was passionately attached to his dogs and other
animals, as his writings testify;2 and when he learnt the
truth about Pinpin, which was kept from him for a time, he
grieved exceedingly and became quite ill, experiencing an
attack of the angina from which he suffered periodically.
As he would not see a doctor some medicine he was accus-
tomed to take in such cases was obtained from France.
But more than once Vizetelly became alarmed respecting
him, for the stifling fits left him quite exhausted, " I shall
die like this some day/' he said more than once, " but it is
useless to get a doctor. There is nothing to be done beyond
what I do/'

Thus, still and ever, he fretted about his dog, particularly
if a day or two passed without the receipt of a letter or a

1 Zola had appealed against the first judgment, "but on August 10 the
Appeal Court confirmed the conviction, altering the original penalty (see ante,
p. 463) to one of a month's imprisonment, a thousand francs' fine, and ten
thousand francs' damages for each of the three plaintiffs.

3 See notahly his articles "Pour les Betes" and " Enfin Couronn^ " in
"Nouvelle Campagne."

476 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

telegram respecting its condition. On or about September
26 Vizetelly went to him with the important news that
M. Brisson had at last referred the revision of the Dreyfus
case to the Cour de Cassation. Such tidings seemed
likely to cheer him ; but directly he caught sight of Vize-
telly he exclaimed, " A telegram ! About Pinpin ? " And
when Vizetelly answered no, his face fell, and scarcely
listening to the good news he sank back on the sofa, mut-
tering, " Ah ! if it had only been about my poor dog ! "
A few days later he learnt that Pinpin was dead. Then for
a moment he remained grieving piteously. But all at once,
shaking his fist, he shouted, " The scoundrels ! it was they
who killed him!" — referring of course to the anti-
Dreyfusites.

But it was only suspense that unnerved Zola either with
regard to the episodes of the Affair or in connection with
his dog. Confronted by the inevitable in the case of
Pinpin, he braced himself and began to mend. Soon after-
wards (October 10), an execution having been duly levied at
his house in the Rue de Bruxelles, a sale took place there.
In the throng which then assembled were many admirers
who hoped to be able to purchase souvenirs. But Zola
had previously arranged that whatever might be the article
first offered for sale, M. Fasquelle, his publisher, should bid
the full amount of the execution. This was done; the
auctioneer put up a Louis XIII table and M. Fasquelle bid
thirty-two thousand francs 1 for it, at which price it became
nominally his property. The sale was then finished, and
the would-be buyers of souvenirs retired disappointed.

Late in October, when the Cour de Cassation, accepting
the question of revision in principle, began its famous in-

1 £1,280 = $6,400.

Zola's Dining-Room

&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 477

quiry, and when M. Brisson fell from office to be succeeded
by M. Dupuy, Zola was removed from Addlestone 1 to the
Queen's Hotel, Upper Norwood, where he remained till the
end of his stay in England. He was still writing " IMcon-
ditd," to which he devoted all his mornings ; and occupying
a small suite of rooms in one of the pavilions of the hotel,
taking his meals in private and holding no intercourse with
his neighbours, his loneliness increased, though Norwood
around him was teeming with life. At intervals, however,
he now received a few visits from friends. The first who
came was M. Yves G-uyot, who had championed the cause
of Dreyfus in " Le Si&cle," which he directed, from the out-
set. With him was an English friend, Mr. J. H. Levy,
of the Personal Rights' Association. Later came M. Jaur&s,
the famous French Socialist leader, another champion of
the good cause; later still, Zola's old friend, M. Theodore
Duret, the historian of the early years of the Third Repub-
lic. M. Fasquelle and M. Octave Mirbeau also saw the
novelist at this time ; and about Easter, 1899, Maitre Labori
paid a flying visit to England to consult him. There was
one American visitor, Mr. Brett of the New York Macmillan
Company, and a few English ones : Mr. George Moore, Mr.
Lucien Wolf, Mr. Chatto and his partner, Mr. Percy Spal-
ding. But those visits, besides being brief, were spread over
a period of seven or eight months. Madame Zola certainly
joined her husband for some part of the time, but the travel-
ling, and more particularly the English climate, tried her
health exceedingly, and for some weeks she was laid up.

1 Before leaving Addlestone he wrote for the London " Star" a short story
called " Angeline," based on a tale of a haunted house current at Walton-
on-Thames. The French text appeared in "La Grande Revue, " edited by
M. Labori. in 1899.

478 fiMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER

For tlie rest, the Vizetellys and the Warehams were fre-
quently at Norwood, and there was still no little correspond-
ence between the novelist and his translator. Here are a
couple of notes written by Zola early in 1899 :

January 3, '99.

My dear Confrere and Friend, — I have just telegraphed to
you that the whole story about an English journalist having inter-
viewed me is purely and simply a lie. I have seen nobody. Be-
sides, there can be no question of extraditing me : they could only
serve me with the judgment of 'the Assize Court. Those people
don't even know what they write about. As for 's indis-
cretion, this is much to be regretted. I am writing to him. For
the sake of our communications I have always desired that Ware-
ham's name and address should be known only to those on whom
one can depend. Tell Wareham to remain on his guard and never
acknowledge that he knows my address.1 Persevere in that course
yourself. That will suffice for the moment. I will wait a few days
to see if anything occurs, before deciding whether the correspond-
ence arrangements should be altered. It would be a big affair ;
and I should afterwards regret a change if it were to prove uncalled
for. So I repeat, let us wait.

Thursday, February 16, '99.

My dear Confrere, — You did right to refuse Mr. my

address. I absolutely decline to see anybody. Whoever may call
on you, under whatever pretext, show him the door and preserve
the silence of the tomb. Less than ever am, I in a humour to let
people disturb me ! As for Mr. Chatto and his partner, as you
and they know, I shall be delighted to see them ; but as you are
also aware, my wife is at this moment very poorly indeed, and I
am in a very low state myself. We should be sorry hosts, so
kindly ask our friends to postpone the visit till a little later. Our
amities to you and yours. Z.

1 In explanation of the above, it may be mentioned that Mr. "Wareham's
position as Zola's intermediary had come to the knowledge of a journalist
through, the indiscretion of a friend in Paris.

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 479

On the day the second of the above letters was written,
President Fdlix Faure died suddenly and under what
seemed to be suspicious circumstances. It is probable that
his seizure was caused by the shock he had experienced a
few hours previously when certain revelations made to him
by a foreign visitor of princely rank had dispelled his con-
fidence in some of the prominent military men whom he
had so long trusted and supported. The news naturally
filled Zola with anxiety, for the future course of events
might largely depend on the character of M. Faure's suc-
cessor. Fortunately the choice of the French Congress fell
on M. Emile Loubet, then President of the Senate. Other
important incidents — M. D&roulfede's attempt at a coup
d'etat, the transference of the revision of the Dreyfus case
from the Criminal Chamber of the Cour de Cassation to the
entire body — kept Zola in a nervous state throughout
February and March. His birthday fell on April 2, and
Vizetelly, finding it impossible to be with him on that occa-
sion, wrote him a note to which he replied as follows :

My dear Confrere and Friend, — Thanks for your good wishes
on the occasion of the anniversary of my birth. I feel deeply
touched by them in the state of sorrowful emotion in which I
am. You write me some very good and true things which go
straight to my heart. And I thank you to-day for the devotion
and the discreet attention which you have never ceased to show
me since the day when I set foot on this land of exile. I shall
expect you the day you please to select, and with kind remem-
brances to your family, I cordially press your hand.

ZOLA.

As the time for the decision of the Cour de Cassation
drew near, the novelist became more and more restless. He

480 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

finished " F&onditd " in May, and on the twenty-seventh, of
that month decided that whatever might be the judgment of
the court, he would return to France directly it was given.
Everything pointed to a favourable issue, and in that an-
ticipation he drafted a declaration which he proposed to
issue in " L'Aurore " on his arrival in Paris. On the even-
ing of June 3 he received a telegram worded, "Cheque
postponed," which, in accordance with previous arrange-
ments, signified that revision had been granted and that
Dreyfus would have to appear before a new court-martial.
Had the words been "Cheque unpaid," they would have
meant "Revision refused," while "Cheque paid" would
have signified not only that revision was accorded but that
Dreyfus would not even be tried afresh. For a long time
previously Zola had been receiving similar telegrams which,
in accordance with a plan devised by him, were full of hid-
den meaning.

M. Fasquelle and his wife were then in London, .and
it was speedily arranged that Zola, who was now in high
spirits, should return to France with them on the following
night, Sunday, June 4. This he did, quitting England
without regret since he was going home ; though he repeat-
edly acknowledged that everything possible had been done
for his comfort, and that he had seen a great deal that
interested him keenly. He appreciated the wonderful
change which seemed to have come over the English press
with respect to himself, and he was grateful also to the
various persons who had recognised him and preserved
discretion.1

1 On June 7 lie wrote to Vizetelly: "Excuse me for not having written
to you at once. I have been caught and carried off in such a whirl that I

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER 481

About the hour when he reached Paris on the morning of
June 5, " L'Aurore " appeared with his declaration " Jus-
tice I " a translation of which was issued the same day in
"The Westminster Gazette."1 After recalling under what
circumstances he had been obliged to leave France, men-
tioning how he had been threatened and insulted and how
cruelly he had suffered both before and during his exile, Zola
reviewed the many developments of the Dreyfus case. And
he continued:

"Now, as truth has been made manifest and justice has been
granted, I return. I desire to do so as quietly as possible, in the
serenity of victory, without giving any occasion for public disturb-
ances. Those treat me unworthily who would confound me with
the base folk who batten on public demonstrations. Even as
I remained quiet abroad, so shall I resume my seat at the national
hearth like a peaceful citizen who wishes to disturb none, but only
desires to resume his usual work without giving people any occa-
sion to occupy themselves further about him."

He disclaimed, he said, all reward or applause, for no
merit attached to what he had done. The cause was so
beautiful, so human. Truth had conquered, and it could not
have been otherwise. Then he added :

" Moreover, my reward I have it already ; it is that of thinking
of the innocent man whom I have helped to extricate from the living
tomb in which he had been plunged in agony for four long years.
Ah ! I confess that the idea of his return, the thought of seeing
him free and of pressing his hands in mine, overwhelms me with
extraordinary emotion, fills my eyes with happy tears ! That

have not yet had a moment to myself. I made on the whole a very satisfac-
tory journey, not a soul recognised me, and here everything is for the best,"

1 The numerous articles on the Dreyfus case which the writer contributed
to that journal were largely inspired by Zola.

482 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

moment will suffice to repay me for all my worries. My friends
and I will have done a good deed for which every good heart in
France will remember us gratefully. And what more could one
desire 1 — a family that will love us, a wife and children who
will bless us, a man who will owe it to us that in him has become
embodied the triumph of equity and human solidarity."

Afterwards, referring to " J' Accuse," he said :

" Do people remember the abominable clamour which greeted
my Letter to the President of the Republic 1 I was the insulter of
the Army, a man who had sold himself, a man without fatherland !
Literary friends, in their consternation and fright, drew away
from me, abandoned me to the horror of my crime. Articles were
indeed written which will weigh heavily on the consciences of
those who signed them. Itfever, it was urged, had the most brutal
of writers, a madman full of sickly pride, dared to address a more
insulting and more mendacious letter to the Chief of the Sfcate !
And now just reperuse my poor letter. I have become a trifle
ashamed of it — ashamed of its discretion, its opportunism, I
will almost say its cowardice. ... I had greatly softened things
in it ; I had even passed some by in silence, — some which are
manifest to-day and acknowledged, but of which I then still
wished to doubt. To tell the truth, yes, I already suspected
Henry, but I had no proofs. So I thought it best to leave him
out of the case. And I divined other matters, for confidential in-
formation had come fco me unsolicited, — information so terrible
that, fearing its frightful consequences, I did not think that I
ought to make it public. Yet now those confidences have been
revealed, have become commonplace truisms. And my poor letter
is no longer up to date ; it seems quite childish, a mere skit, the
paltry invention of some timid novelist, by the side of the truth,
so superb and fierce. . . There was not an unnecessary word in it,
there was nothing but the grief of a citizen respectfully soliciting jus-
tice of the Chief of his country. But such has been the everlasting
history of my writings — I have never been able to pen a book, a

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE 483

page even, without being covered with falsehood and insult, though
on the morrow my assailants have been constrained to admit that
I was in the right."

After indicating that he personally harboured no anger or
rancour against anybody, Zola pointed out that, in the public
interest, some example ought to be made of the wrong-
doers, for otherwise the masses would never believe in the
immensity of the crime. "But," said he, "I leave to
Nemesis the task of completing her work. I shall not aid
her." Then came an impassioned appeal on behalf of the
noble and persecuted Colonel Picquart, for the good work
would only be complete when justice had been done him.
And Zola continued :

" All former political parties have now collapsed, and there re-
main but two camps, — that of the reactionary forces of the past,
and that of the men bent on inquiry, truth, and uprightness, who
are marching towards the future. That order of battle alone is
logical ; it must be retained in order that to-morrow may be ours.
To work, then ! By pen, by speech, and by action ! To work for
progress and deliverance 1 'Twill be the completion of the task of
1789, a pacific revolution in mind and in heart, the democracy
welded together, freed from evil passions, based at last on the just
law of labour which will permit an equitable apportionment of
wealth. Thenceforward France a free country, France a dispenser
of justice, the harbinger of the equitable society of the coming
century, will once more find herself a sovereign among the nations.
And there exists no empire, however cased in mail it be, but will
crumble when France shall have given justice to the world even as
she has already given it liberty. I believe in no other historical
rdle for her henceforward ; never yet will she have known such a
splendour of glory."

The conclusion followed :

484 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER

" I am at home. The Public Prosecutor may therefore signify
to me, whenever he pleases, the sentence of the Versailles Assizes
condemning me by default to a year's imprisonment and three
thousand francs fine. And we shall once more find ourselves be-
fore a jury. In provoking a prosecution I only desired truth and
justice. To-day they are here. My case can now serve no useful
purpose; it no longer even, interests me. Justice simply has to say
whether it be a crime to desire truth." 1

Unfortunately subsequent events confirmed only some of
Zola's generous anticipations. M. Dupuy fell from power
on June 12, M. Waldeck-Kousseau succeeded him on the
22d, Dreyfus landed in Trance on July 1, and the new
court-martial on him assembled at Eennes on August 8.
His partisans were at first full of hope, but various incidents
supervening (among others, a dastardly attempt to assassi-
nate Maitre Labori), no little anxiety returned. Zola had
remained in seclusion at MMan,2 glancing at the final proofs
of " F<3condit4" which was appearing serially in " I/Aurore,"
and thinking of his next work, " Travail." Meantime Vize-
telly was repeatedly solicited by English editors to induce
him to write something about the court-martial, but he was
unwilling to do so for any foreign newspapers, and besides,
as he put it, it was neither right nor possible to say anything

1 The full text will be found in " La Verite" en Marche."

2 He had written to Vizetelly, under date July 20, 1899 : " I am at last
sending you the promised photographs, and apologise for the delay. You can
have no idea of the worries that have assailed ine. I have often regretted the
quietude of Queen's Hotel already. However, everything is going for the
best, the happy d&nowmmt is approaching, and I start for Medan on Tuesday
to take a rest. I have read in ' Le Matin ' your articles on iny stay in
England. They are trks lien, they have skilfully remained within the limits
which I asked you not to exceed. . . . Thanks again. I press your hand
affectionately. Emile Zola." The articles referred to were those reprinted as
"Zola in England,"

EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOKMER 485

until the verdict was given. He communicated with Vize-
telly several times on these matters, on one occasion sending
a card on which, in spite of all the bad rumours, he indicated
his confidence in the result of the proceedings : " My dear
friend," he said, " I will say nothing, and I "beg you to say
nothing in my name. One must wait firmly for victory." 1
On September 9, however, the unfortunate Dreyfus was
once more found guilty of the crime he had never com-
mitted. Zola, still at M4dan, was profoundly shocked and
horrified by the verdict, and again he published a dec-
laration, " Le Cinqui&me Acte," 2 in which he expressed his
fear that the truth might fall on France from Germany in a
manner which might have the most terrible consequences.
The result of the trial certainly caused amazement all the
world over. In Great Britain the indignation was extreme,
and a proposal to boycott the Exhibition which was to be
held in Paris in 1900 was agitated by several newspapers.
Vizetelly was appealed to by some who felt that Zola might
be able to quiet the outcry, and an offer of two shillings a
word for an article which might run to ten thousand words,
was made to him by the editor of a London newspaper.
But even this proposal was declined by Zola, who wrote to
Vizetelly on September 14:

My dear Confrere and Eriend, — I do not take payment in
France for my articles on the Dreyfus case, and still less would I
accept money from a foreign newspaper. As for intervening be-
tween France and the world, I will not and cannot do so, for all sorts
of reasons* Besides, in spite of the gravity of the symptoms, I do not
believe that our Exhibition is seriously threatened. I still wish to
believe that France will do what may be necessary to be in a posi-

card in question accompanies the present volume.
2 See "La Ve*rit6 en Marche," p. 147 et seq.

486 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

tion of dignity next May when she will receive her guests. All
this between ourselves, this letter is absolutely for you alone.
You would cause me the greatest grief by the slightest indiscre-
tion. . . . Thanks for the English newspapers you have sent. I
have just read them with keen interest. But all that does not
frighten me much."1

Five days later the unhappy Dreyfus accepted the pardon
offered him by President Loubet, and Zola then addressed a
beautiful, pathetic letter to the poor martyr's wife, in which
lie gave her the assurance that his friends and himself would
continue the battle until both her husband and France should
be fully rehabilitated.2

In October " Fdcondit<£" was published as a volume, and
dealing as it did with, a problem of national importance, the
decline in. the birth-rate and the massacre of infantile life
in France, it attracted widespread attention. It was a very
outspoken book, but a necessary one, and its exposure of the
vices of married life was one to be applied to other countries
besides France. But Vizetelly, who remembered the past
and knew that Pecksniffs and Podsnaps still flourished in
England, felt that the national cant would not suffer a plain
statement of the truth. Some difficulty occurred therefore
with respect to the translation of " F^condit^/' the English
version of which had to be considerably curtailed. In
France the sale of the original work was assisted by the
fact that after all the abominations of the Affair a certain
number of Zola's former admirers were now gradually re-
turning to him.8

1 A. foe-simile of the above letter is given with, the present volume,
a " La Ve"rit<$ en Marche," p. 163 et seq.

8 "Recondite." Paris, Fasquelle, 1899, 18mo, 751 pages. Some copies
on special papers; a few in two vols. 8vo. Ninety-fourth, thousand in 1901,

iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 487

His remaining share in the Dreyfus case may be dealt
with briefly. The victim was at last free, restored to his
wife and children; and thus a great part of Zola's object
had been achieved. The charge against the novelist of
having libelled the Esterhazy court-martial still had to be
considered, but his trial was repeatedly postponed in
consequence of the government bringing an Amnesty Bill
before the legislature. Zola repeatedly protested against
the measure, addressing long letters to both the Senate and
President Loubet on the subject.1 He did not wish to be
amnestied but judged, and he thought it abominable that
the same law should be applied to him and other defenders
of the truth as to all the evil-doers who had persecuted
Dreyfus, screened the scoundrel Esterhazy, and made use
of every possible lie, forgery, and fraud, in order to obscure
the truth, deceive the nation, and prevent justice from being
done. But Zola's protests, whether by letter or by word
of mouth, before the Senatorial Committee, which received
him on March 14, 1900, were of no more avail than
those of Dreyfus himself, M. Joseph Reinach, and Colonel
Picquart. In point of fact M. Waldeck-Rousseau, the Prime
Minister, was most concerned about the Clericalist peril
behind the Affair, — the strenuous efforts which bishops,
priests, and particularly religious orders had been making
to capture France. They had used the Dreyfus case as a
weapon ; under their secret direction it had proved indeed
a powerful one, and in M. Waldeck-Kousseau's opinion,
before all else, it was necessary to deprive them of it. For
that purpose he devised the Amnesty in the hope that he

1 See his letters in " La V^rite' en Marche," p. 181 and p. 205 ; also others
in "L'Aurore," March 10 and 15, 1900.

488 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

would thereby kill the Affair, put it out of the way, before
dealing with the religious orders. The right course would
have been to proceed against the compromised members of
the General Staff, but after the Rennes verdict M. Waldeck-
Rousseau had not the courage to do so. Besides, in that
matter he was largely in the hands of his own War Min-
ister, General de Galliffet. France was committed to the
Amnesty long before General Andr£ arose to enforce obe-
dience in the higher ranks of the army. And thus for
political reasons a crowning iniquity was perpetrated.
Impunity was assured to the Merciers, the Boisdeffres, the
Billots, and all the others. At the most they lost their
military positions. Every criminal action in the Affair was
stopped and prohibited by the Amnesty Bill, which became
law in November, 1900. The privileges of parties in civil
actions were alone reserved, though at the same time
Captain Dreyfus retained the right to apply for further
revision and even rehabilitation whenever he might dis-
cover the necessary new facts. At that moment it was
scarcely imagined in high places that he would do so. M.
Waldeck-Rousseau, like many another before him, fancied
that he had indeed killed the Affair; but at the time of
writing these lines it is once more before the Cour de
Cassation.

It should be added that, prior to the Amnesty, Zola had
been acquitted of the charge of traducing Judet of "Le
Petit Journal," who had so foully attacked his father's
memory ; and had moreover secured a judgment condemn-
ing the unprincipled journalist to pay him five thousand
francs' damages. Judet, however, carried the case to the
Appeal Court, and it long remained in abeyance. Finally,

Photo by femile Zola

Mme. Zola at the Queen's Hotel, Upper Norwood
January, 1899

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMEE 489

in a letter addressed to tyfaitre Labor! on March 7, 1901,
Zola renounced all further action in this case as well
as in one instituted against the handwriting experts for
the purpose of setting aside the judgment by which they
had levied an execution on the novelist's furniture. " Let
them keep the money, let them go off with their pockets
full," wrote Zola; "the bitter irony of it all will be the
greater, and there will be yet a little more baseness in
the Affair." For his part he did not wish that the great
battle in a high and noble cause should end in sordid
squabbles about sums of money. Though it was said
that the Amnesty effaced everything, the Public Prosecu-
tion Office had retained the fines and costs levied upon
him, and this, again, he regarded as monstrous ; but he
repeated that he did not wish to drag the cause through
petty proceedings based on personal interest. The truth
would not come from them, though assuredly it would
come eventually.

That Zola spent a large amount of money in connection
with the Dreyfus case is certain; for besides the costs of
all the legal proceedings (criminal and civil) against him,
which remained heavy notwithstanding the disinterested-
ness of Maftre Labori, he often contributed considerable
sums for objects connected with the cause. Moreover,
although both "Paris" and "F£condit<5" sold fairly well,
thanks to the foreign demand, a very great drop oc-
curred in the circulation of the novelist's earlier works, for
which there had been a steady sale in previous years. It
may be estimated that in 1897 Zola's income was be-
tween seven and eight thousand pounds. In 1898, the
year of " J' Accuse," it was not more than a third of that

490 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

figure. He sold the serial rights of " Incondite " to " L'Au-
rore " for about half the amount he had been receiving for
his works from other journals previous to the Affair ; and it
was not published as a volume till late in 1899, in which
year also his income remained a low one. Indeed, it never
rose again to its former figure. His book " Travail," of which
something will be said in our next chapter, was only a demi-
succes from the pecuniary standpoint. And as all this was,
in the main, the result of his participation in the Dreyfus
case, it will be seen that he made no small sacrifices for
the cause he championed.

He found a sufficient reward, he said, in a quieter con-
science, in the knowledge that he had done his duty as a
man. Sympathy came to him, as one has mentioned, from
many a foreign land, and of course he was not without
sympathisers in France, his fellow-fighters of that lataillon
sacre which by degrees became a small army. Subsequent
to his condemnation in Paris in 1898, the newly founded
Ligue des Droits de I'Homme, which was destined to recruit
many soldiers for the good cause, opened, in conjunction with
the newspapers which supported it, a subscription for a medal
to be offered to Zola in recognition of his courage. In a few
days over ten thousand francs were collected, and a superb
gold medal, bearing the effigy of the novelist designed by M.
Alexandre Oharpentier, and by its size, weight, and the qual-
ity of the metal unique in numismatics, was struck.1 Zola

1 It was, so to say, a medallion, its diameter being about 7 inches (183 milli-
metres), and its thickness about one eighth of an inch (3 millimetres}. It
weighed 5.80 pounds troy. On the obverse was the novelist's effigy with the
inscription, ffommage & Emile Zola; on the reverse, the inscription, £0,
Vtoritt est en Marche et Men ne l'arr$tera, Emile Zola, 13 Janvier, 1898. A
copy of the medal on a reduced scale (59 millimetres) was also given to Zola,
and with the balance of the subscription money small copies in silver and

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 491

however, was long unwilling to accept it, for victory was
not yet won. At last, some time after Dreyfus was pardoned,
he consented to do so ; and the presentation took place at
the offices of " Le Si&cle," whose editor, M. Yves Guyot,
was president of the subscription committee. Besides the
Dreyfus family, Colonel Picquart, and the Laboris, many
others who had fought the good fight were present; and
in response to M. Guyot's address, Zola pronounced a short
and feeling speech, towards the close of which he said:
" Undoubtedly, if the question had only been one of saving
an innocent man from his torturers, of restoring Dreyfus to
his wife and children, our victory would be complete. The
whole world holds him to be a martyr, his legal rehabilita-
tion will soon follow — all that frightful story is surely
ended! But there was another dear to us, one who was
poisoned, in peril of death, and that dear and great and
noble one was Trance. . . . We dreamt of seeing her freed
from ancient servitude, rising, with her artisans, her savants,
her thinkers, to a new ideal, reconquering old Europe, not
indeed by arms but by the ideas that liberate. Never had
there occurred such an opportunity to give her a sound
practical lesson, for we had set our hands upon the very
rottenness that was eating into the cracking, decaying edi-
fice; and we thought if we pointed it out that would be
sufficient, that the house would be cleansed, rebuilt, prop-
erly and substantially. But in that respect we have been
beaten. They have decided merely to pass a sponge over
the rottenness, so that the timbers will continue to crack
and decay till the house at last comes down. For that rea-

"bronze were distributed among the subscribers, others being sold to the
public.

492 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

son I am sad, for that reason I cannot sing victory. Dreyfus
is free, but our France remains ill, feeling that she has not
strength enough to bear the splendour of truth and justice.
And yet I am hopeful, for I believe in her labour, in the
power of her genius. A somewhat long period would have
elapsed, perhaps, had I decided to await her complete recov-
ery before accepting the medal which has been laid aside for
so many months in the expectation of a beautiful dawn. So
I accept it now with emotion and with gratitude. And I
hope that I shall not die before I see, reflected in its pure
gold, that rising dawn of supreme national glory which we
have all desired."

XIV

LAST YEAES — DEATH

1901 — 1902

Zola's attempts at constructive writing — His evolution toward Socialism —
Some further remarks on «' Fe'condite " — *' Travail" and the pacific evo-
lution of the working classes — Zola and the tastes of his readers — Pub-
lication of " Travail " — " I/Ouragan " — Zola's difficulties with ' " Ye'rite' "
— He is haunted by the Dreyfus case — He adapts it to "Ve"rite " — His
evolution in religious matters — His Positivism — His opinion of the
French Protestants — His last days — Announcement of his death —
Account and cause of it — The autopsy -~ Madame Zola's illness —
Reception of the news in France and abroad — Insults and tributes of
sympathy — Preparations for the funeral — The question, of military
honours — Difficulties with Captain Dreyfus — The obsequies — A great
demonstration — The speeches at the graveside — M. Anatole France's
stirring oration.

UNTIL Zola began his last series, " Les Quatre fivangiles,"
he had been, virtually all his life, a writer of the so-called
destructive school, that is to say he had directed attention
to an infinity of things which in his opinion ought to be
swept away, but he had said little indeed of what he would
set in their place. In like manner, within narrower limits,
Charles Dickens and Charles Eeade had exposed abuses
without indicating remedies. Zola for his part long held
that remedial measures were not of his province. It was
for the legislator to devise them, and there was no call for
the author to go beyond an expose of the abuses which re-
quired redress. Time and circumstances gradually modified
that view, and in his last years, while persevering in his de-
structive work, Zola made some attempt to couple re-con-

494 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFO&MEB,

struction with it. A suggestion of what was coming
appeared already in the pages of his novel, " Paris," which
concluded the trilogy of " Les Trois Villes." In that series
he had shown Faith expiring, Hope a delusion, Charity a
mockery ; but at the same time he had felt that if those
guiding principles were to be discarded, they must be re-
placed by others, — Fruitf ulness, Work, Truth, and Justice.

The scheme was of earlier date than the Dreyfus agitation,
and no trace of the latter is to be found in " F£condit£," the
first volume in which it was unfolded. But as Zola pro-
ceeded with his work he was naturally influenced by all he
had experienced and witnessed during the turmoil. As will
presently be seen, the Affair eventually invaded his pages,
but apart from that matter it hastened an evolution of his
mind. He had begun life as an Individualist, it was as an
unattached Socialist that he ended it, and this would have
happened, no doubt, whether there had been a Dreyfus case
or not. Without the Affair, however, the evolution might
have remained less definite, less complete. The Affair
showed him that the existing social edifice was in some
respects even more rotten than he had previously believed.
There could be no doubt of it, the facts were manifest ; and
it followed that there was now less call for exposure than for
remedial measures. As his opinions with regard to such
measures differed largely from those of the men in power,
the call upon him was all the greater. He therefore tried
to indicate broadly on what lines reforms might proceed,
and to sketch the future effect which such reforms might
have on the community.

It has been said that in his last works his imagination
failed him, that it was quite spent, and that he could no

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 495

longer have produced a work of art had he tried. That
theory is wrong, based on ignorance of what was then in
Zola's mind. If he had lived long enough to write the
novel on the " Rat de I'Op&ca," l of which he talked so often
to the present writer, the world would have seen that the
powers of the novelist were undiminished. But in the great
crisis through which France was passing Zola held that for
a time, at all events, his duty lay in other work.

" F^condite*," of which some mention was made in the
previous chapter, treated a subject which had long haunted
him — in a measure for personal reasons — but it was, of
course, from the national standpoint that he dealt with
it in his book. The question of the decline in the birth
rate and the mortality among infants had not only occupied
the attention of French sociologists and scientists for sev-
eral years, but various novels based upon it had already
been written — novels indicating that the whole tendency
of the times was to transform matrimony into legalised
prostitution, in accordance with certain specious neo-
Malthusian theories. Zola rightly held that unless that
tendency were checked there could be no social regeneration
at all. Thus he placed the subject in question at the head
of his series. While he was preparing " Ffcondite* " in Eng-
land the present writer was often able to glance at the
documents, medical works, reports, letters from eminent
scientists, and so forth, on which the novelist based his
account of the noxious practices prevalent in various strata
of French society, and he holds that far from " F^condite' "
being an exaggerated picture it did not represent more than
two-thirds of the actual truth. On the other hand, when
Zola proceeded to sketch the healthy life which ought to

1 See ante, p. 430.

496 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

replace the existing one, enthusiasm led him further than
was necessary, though, after all, he did not go beyond the
provisions of the "marriage-books" which the French
authorities hand to every bridegroom at the conclusion of
the marriage ceremony — books beginning with a signed
and stamped certificate of the union just celebrated and^
continuing with enough blank forms to register the birth of
twelve children — the number which Zola bestowed on his
hero and heroine, Mathieu and Marianne.

Fruitfulness, said he, created the home, whence sprang
the city ; and from the idea of citizenship that of the father-
land proceeded. There could be no nation unless there
were fruitf ulness, which became, then, a first national duty.
The second was work, which Zola considered under various
aspects in his next novel, " Travail" He held that every
man ought to work for his own support and that of his
family, and he also regarded work as a panacea for many
ills. But he turned more particularly to the consideration
of the circumstances under which work was done in the
modern world, to the condition of the toilers generally, the
great capital and labour problem. In that connection he
was greatly influenced by the state of France at the time
he wrote, the onward march of Socialism, the innumerable
strikes, the complaints, the demands rising on all sides.
He felt that matters could not remain as they were. But
though he was in the higher sense a great fighter he was
the adversary of mere brute force ; and dreading an armed
collision between the classes, he tried to devise, to suggest,
a pacific remedial evolution.

As he was unwilling to imprison himself or anybody else
within the narrow and stringent bonds of certain forms of

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMERI 497

Socialism, it was to the broader and more generous ideas of
Charles Fourier that he finally inclined, striving to adapt them
to the needs of a new century. It is certain that some of his
suggestions remained nebulous, that several were not strictly
practical, but it should be remembered that at the outset of
" Les Quatre Evangiles " he had announced that the series
would form a kind of "poem in prose, divided into four
chants." It would be unfair to neglect that statement, for
it shows he did not intend " F£condit<5 " and " Travail " to
be taken as severely practical works. They partook, as one
has said, of a constructive character — as opposed to Zola's
earlier and purely destructive writings — but they were not
intended to be the final plans of an architect or an engineer,
or the ultimate provisions of a new code. They were the
roughest of sketches, so to say, suggestions which here and
there might be found useful by those who might have to
solve the problems which they reviewed. And it must be
at least Admitted that their tendency was good. In " F£con~
dit$ " it was most healthful; in " Travail" it was most pacific
and calming, Zola's manifest intention being to quiet the
angry passions of the hour, to direct Labour towards peace-
able courses in its quest for the fulfilment of its aspirations.
Such books cannot be judged as one would judge ordi-
nary novels. They were, to a certain point, drafted in the
form of novels in order that they might reach the great
majority ; but Zola, with superb disdain, now cast many of
the rules and conventions of novel-writing aside. After the
publication of " Travail," Vizetelly sent him word that the
English translation had been regarded less as a work of
fiction than as a combination of sermon and pamphlet,
to which the reviewers and the public did not seem to

498 EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE

take very kindly. Zola replied under date of May 8,
1901:

IC I have never consulted the tastes of the public, and I am
too old nowadays to modify my work in order to please it. I
am writing these books with a certain purpose before me, a
purpose in which the question of form is of secondary importance.
I have no intention of trying to amuse people or thrill them with
excitement. I am merely placing certain problems before them,
and suggesting in some respects certain solutions, showing what
I hold to be wrong and what I think would be right. "When I
have finished these 'Evangiles,' when 'Verite* and ( Justice'
are written, it is quite possible that I shall write shorter and
livelier books. Personally I should have everything to gain by
doing so, but for the present I am fulfilling a duty which the
state of my country imposes on me."

Most of ^Travail" was written in 1900, in December
of which year it began to appear in " I/Aurore." In April,
1901, it was published as a volume.1 A little later in the
same year, the virulence of the Dreyfus agitation having
subsided and public attention being turned to the Assump-
tionists and other religious orders, in connection with
M. Waldeck-Rousseau's Association Bill, the director of the
Op&ra Comique in Paris thought the moment favourable
for the production of a one-act lyrical drama, entitled
ff I/Ouragan," the prose libretto of which, set to music by
M. Bruneau, had been written by Zola some years pre-
viously. " L'Ouragan " was not a particularly ambitious
work and the moderate success it achieved was perhaps
all that could have been expected for it.

After the production of that piece Zola began to consider
the subject of his next book, " V&itd," which gave him no

1 "Travail," Paria, Fasquelle, 1901, 18mo, 666 pages; some copies OR
special papers, etc. Seventy-seventh, thousand in 1903.

SMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 499

little trouble. It seems likely that when he first planned
his series he had thought of showing in this particular
volume that scientific truth, and not the assertions, delu-
sions, and errors of religious systems, should be taken as
the guiding principle of life. But the Dreyfus case, which
had intruded into a few pages of " Travail," haunted him.
He knew that it had supplied one of the most shocking
exhibitions of mendacity that the world had ever wit-
nessed; and it followed that "V&rit6" ought not merely
to inculcate a belief in scientific truth. It also ought to
recall people to the practice of truthfulness in their every-
day life. Thus Zola's subject expanded. He had always
intended to show the evil effects of the training given to
children in certain so-called religious schools, where, ac-
cording to his view, their minds were perverted, deprived
of all self-reliance by the intrusion of the supernatural.
But the Dreyfus case had shown him there was more than
that. The mendacity so current throughout the period of
the Affair had come almost entirely from men trained by
the Roman Church. Moreover that Church's share in the
Affair, its hostility and its intrigues against the Republic
under cover of the anti-Semitic agitation, were now every
day more apparent. Zola had repeatedly declared that
he would write no novel on the Dreyfus case, for he did
not wish anybody to say that he had earned a single sou,
directly or indirectly, by the Affair. But it was ever
beside him, with its influence, its revelations, its lessons.
And it seemed to him fit that everybody should understand
that in one way and another such turmoil, frenzy, and
mendacity would never have been possible if it had not
been for the Roman Church. The case haunting him more

500 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFORMER

and more, he gradually yielded to the obsession, resolving,
however, to cast the military men on one side, for after all
they had only been agents, in some degree the victims
of their training. In lieu of them he would depict those
whom he regarded as the real culprits. It had been settled
that the book should deal with school life ; and it would be
easy to adapt a kind^ of Dreyfus case to such surroundings.
A Jewish schoolmaster might be substituted for a Jewish
officer, while as for the crime which it would be necessary
to impute to him, there had been a terrible affair at Lille,
not long previously, the murder of a little boy, in which a
certain Brother Flamidien — who was spirited away by
his colleagues — had been implicated. Some such brother
would represent Esterhazy in Zola's work, Dreyfus being
represented by Simon, the Jewish schoolmaster.

That Zola repeatedly hesitated with respect to this pas-
tiche of the Dreyfus case is certain. In the summer of 1901
he wrote to Vizetelly that he was preparing " Y6cit4," but
that none of it would be ready for several months, for he
was still doubtful whether he would introduce certain ele-
ments into the work or not. Finally, as the only means,
perhaps, of relieving his mind, he took the plunge, resolving
upon an adaptation of the Affair on the lines one has indi-
cated. Yet he again paused more than once, as he men-
tioned in another letter. That was written on September
12, when he further stated that he would have nothing
ready until the ensuing month of January, 1902, when he
wrote to Vizetelly: \

"Thanks for your good wishes for the New Tear, and pray
accept ours for yourself and all your family. I find I shall not
have * V£rit£ ' ready for publication as a book until next October,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 501

and that the feuilleton will not begin to appear until the early
days of June. As you would like to have a few chapters in
advance, however, I think I may be able to send the first ones
about the end of next month. ... I wish you good health, good
work, and am very cordially yours,

Again there came delays, perhaps, because for the pur-
poses of his book Zola was following the campaign against
the religious orders.1 At all events the proofs of the first
four chapters were not sent to Messrs. Chatto till July 10,
on which date the novelist wrote to Vizetelly that the serial
issue would begin in "L'Aurore" on September 10. About
this time, July, Zola had completed the actual writing of
the work, and revised the proofs of Book I, the first forty
pages of which were as good as anything he had ever
penned. But as the work proceeded its hybrid character
became manifest. As the Affaire Flamidien had suggested
itself to Zola's mind it would have been better if the crimi-
nal part of the work had been confined to it. The grafting
of the Dreyfus case upon another one led to various diffi-
culties in the narrative, and the very restraint which Zola
imposed upon himself in his veiled account of the real Affair
was prejudicial to the general effect. In the writer's opin-
ion the best part of the work was that describing the con-

1 In the early parts of this year, 1902, Messrs. Eaoul de Saint- Arroman
and Charles Hugot produced a dramatic version of ' £ La Terre " which at-
tracted considerable attention. Some scenes were certainly interesting, "but
the play was deficient in cohesion. The same authors had previously adapted
"Au Bonheur des Dames" for the stage. Subsequent to Zola's death. M. de
Saint- Arroman related in "Le Siecle" that on being asked what percentage
of the author's rights in those plays should be paid to him the novelist had
answered, " Whatever you like." Zola's enemies often insinuated that his
nature was a grasping one in money as in other matters, but there was no truth
whatever in the charge.

502 &MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEB

flict between tlie hero Marc and his wife, Genevifeve, the
former a free-thinker, the latter a product of Catholic train-
ing, who after forgetting her faith amid her love, remem-
bered it when the question of training and educating her
daughter arose.

• In that connection it may be mentioned that while Zola
was in England during the Dreyfus case, he and Vizetelly in
their strolls together discussed such matters more than once.
Vizetelly had occasion to mention incidents well within his
knowledge, which showed what serious trouble sometimes
supervened when husband and wife were not of the same
belief. Those conversations were doubtless remembered by
Zola while he was writing " V£rit£," in which, however, he
described a far more dramatic and more painful situation
than had been sketched to him. Chats of that kind led to
discussions on religion generally. Vizetelly having men-
tioned various changes which had come over him in matters
of belief, Zola replied by recounting some of his own expe-
riences. Baptised a Catholic, he had made his First Com-
munion, and though it was not true that he had ever been
a choir-boy he had walked in religious processions. But
a little later, rejecting now one dogma and now another,
he had gradually freed himself from all such bonds, merely
clinging for a time to such Deism as Voltaire suggested when
he said or wrote : " Si Dieu rfexistait pas il faudrait fin-
venter." Would Voltaire have used such words, however, if
he had lived in the nineteenth century, the age of science ?
Zola thought not. For his part, in religion as in literature
and other matters, he had been unable to tarry long in any
half-way house. He had at last largely embraced the Posi-
tivism which acknowledges only that which is manifest, and

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOKMER 503

which neither accepts nor denies that which is hypothesis
only. Zola had known Littr<3, Wybouroff, and others, and he
had at least met Pierre Laffitte ; but his creed, apparently,
had come to him less directly than indirectly, that is filtered
through the philosophy of Taine. For the rest, as a great
admirer of M. Berthelot, he was a fervent believer in
Science. In spite of the many limits to our knowledge
nowadays, he held that Science would some day succeed in
solving directly or indirectly the whole riddle of the uni-
verse. Nevertheless, though he could not believe in the
supernatural such as it was expounded by the Christian
churches, he fully understood that many should cling to
such beliefs in their craving for some certainty and consola-
tion. It seemed to him monstrous, however, that so many
grossly superstitious practices should have been grafted on
the elementary principles of Christianity, and that the Eo-
man Catholic Church should be primarily an engine of
political domination. At the same time he held the opin-
ion that there was far more broadness of views among
Catholics generally than among Protestants. The latter
certainly had one good trait, their minds might be nar-
rower, their self-righteousness might be almost repulsive, but
their rigidity of principles at least stimulated them to truth-
fulness, whereof, said Zola, they had given conspicuous proof
during the Dreyfus case. The French Protestants were
only a handful, but they possessed the courage of their
convictions ; they had not hesitated to testify to the truth,
whatever risk they ran in doing so.

The reader may think it curious that Zola should have
expressed himself as a Positivist, and yet have harboured
sundry petty superstitions, such as were enumerated in a

504 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

previous chapter. That contradiction may well have pro-
ceeded from the duality of his nature, to which reference has
been made more than once. However, in the novelist's later
years the writer never observed any particular trace of the
curious practices recorded by Dr. Toulouse. He had at least
largely rid himself of theni. The -cfnly sign he gave of arith-
momania while he was in England was to count the women's
hairpins which he saw littering the streets when he took
his walks abroad ; but he did that, he explained, to occupy
his mind when he was alone and because he was struck by
the vast number of hairpins which Englishwomen con-
trived to lose. Once or twice, too, in conversation he spoke
of his luck, but people often do that without putting any
particular faith in luck. In England he had certainly re-
linquished the practice of fingering things or setting them, in
particular positions before he left a room, and he gave no
sign that he was haunted by any fear of death. Of that, on
the occasions when he was ill, he spoke quite calmly, though
in the spirit of a man who held that when one died it was
for ever. At various times he had given some attention to
spiritualism, but had found no little imposture in it, and
nothing, said he, had convinced him of the survival of the
individual soul.

Throughout the summer of 1902 he remained at M£dan,
correcting further proofs of "V&ritd," and making a few
preparations for « Justice/' which was to have been the last
of his " Evangiles." In August he wrote half a dozen times
to Vizetelly respecting the translation of " V£rit6 " and its
publication in England and America, Such business letters
are of little interest, however, to the general public. It may
just be mentioned that he said on one occasion, " Times are

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 505

still very hard, but one consoles oneself by working " ; the
reference in this case being less to pecuniary matters than
to his position in France generally, for he still remained
under a cloud, as it were, in consequence of his participation
in the Affair. In the early part of September he once more
wrote to Vizetelly about " V£rit£," and then came silence.
At that moment, however, there was no occasion for further
correspondence. So a few weeks passed, Vizetelly steadily
proceeding with his translation of "V&it£" which had
begun to appear in "Reynolds's Newspaper." But all at
once, on September 29, telegrams from Paris startled the
world with the news that Emile Zola had been found dead
in his bedroom and that his wife had narrowly escaped
dying with him. Circulation was also given to an absurd
rumour that the case was one of suicide. On receipt of the
news, Vizetelly, naturally enough, started for Paris,

On the previous day, Sunday, September 28, Zola and his
wife had quitted M£dan to take up their autumn and winter
quarters at 21 Us Rue de Bruxelles, Paris, of which house
they rented the ground and the first floors, the upper stories
being tenanted by other persons, who by means of a com-
municating doorway came and went by the staircase of the
adjoining house, in such wise that the Zolas were isolated
from those who dwelt above them. Their chief apartment
on the ground floor was a spacious dining-room, with a ve-
randah whence one looked into a pleasant garden. Upstairs
were two drawing-rooms, two principal bedrooms, a dressing
and bath room, and the novelist's study ; and in the winter all
these apartments were warmed by hot air from an apparatus
in the cellars. Naturally that apparatus had not been used
during the summer, and thus the rooms were chilly when

506 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the Zolas returned from Mddan. A fire was therefore lighted
in their hedroom — with some difficulty, it would seem, for
the chimney did not draw well. This chimney was com-
mon "both to the Zolas' bedroom and to some apartments
overhead, occupied by other tenants, one of whom had re-
cently had it swept in its upper part. The sweeping, it is
thought, may have brought down sundry fragments of brick-
work and cement, which remained obstructing the lower
part of the chimney, the Zolas on their side having given
no orders for sweeping it, as, on account of the heating ap-
paratus in the cellars, it was seldom used by them. In any
case, whatever may have been the exact cause, the chimney
was certainly obstructed, and on the evening of September
28 Madame Zola, observing that the fire burnt very badly,
expressed an intention of having the chimney examined by
some workmen who were engaged on various repairs in the
rooms.

She and her husband sat down to dinner that evening
about eight o'clock. They were very hungry and made a
hearty meal. Then, at an early hour, being somewhat tired by
their removal from the country to town, they retired to rest.
At that moment Madame Zola observed that the bedroom
fire was smouldering, and asked her husband if he wished it
to be extinguished. He answered that he did not think it
necessary, for it would soon burn out. Then one or the
other lowered to within a few inches of the hearth the
sheet-iron tablier, a kind of screen or shutter with which
most French fireplaces are provided. They went to bed and
fell asleep, but about three o'clock in the morning Madame
Zola suddenly awoke, experiencing a feeling of great oppres-
sion. Her head was heavy and she was seized with nausea.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMER 507

She managed to get out of bed for the purpose of going to
the adjoining dressing-room, but was no sooner on her feet
than faintness came over her and she had to cling to the
bedstead for support. At last she contrived to drag herself
to the dressing-room, where she was able to breathe more
freely. But the feeling of nausea persisted, and at last came
violent vomiting, which kept her in the dressing-room for
three quarters of an hour. This, however, helped to save
her life ; and feeling considerably relieved, she quitted the
dressing-room and returned to bed. Her coming and going
had wakened her husband, and after scolding a little pet
dog which slept in the room on an arm-chair, from which it
had climbed upon the bed, Madame Zola, thinking that she
heard her husband complain, turned to him and inquired if
he also felt unwell. " It is curious, but I do," he answered,
explaining that his symptoms were akin to hers. She
thereupon suggested that she should summon the servants,
but he replied : " It is not worth while. "We are both
suffering from indigestion. It will be nothing, we shall be
all right to-morrow." Then, intending to open a window or
go to the dressing-room as his wife had done, he rose, looked
for his slippers, and took a few steps. But all at once a
fainting fit came upon him, and he was too far from the
bedstead to use it as a support. His wife heard him gasp,
then fall upon the floor. She called him, but he did not
answer. She wished to go to his help, but again an op-
pressive stifling sensation suddenly came upon her and she
was unable to rise or even press the electric bell in order to
summon assistance. By a last despairing effort she man-
aged to sit up in bed, but immediately fell back again,
losing consciousness. That was all she was able to relate

508 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

when she was subsequently questioned ; she could remember
nothing more.

At eight o'clock in the morning the two workmen who were
making repairs in the house arrived, and Madame Monnier,
the doorkeeper, set them on some quiet little jobs in order
that her employers- might not be disturbed. They, the Zolas,
usually rose between eight and nine, but that morning time
went by and they gave no sign of life. About nine o'clock
Madame Monnier's husband, one of the two men-servants,
knocked repeatedly at the bedroom door but obtained no
answer. He and his wife then became alarmed, and with
the help of one of the workmen burst the door open. To
their horror and amazement they saw Zola lying in his night-
gown on the floor, his feet just touching the rug beside the
bed. One of the party at once opened a window, while
Madame Monnier went to the bed where her mistress was
lying unconscious. There was a second bedstead in the
room, a small iron one, and to this some of the servants
carried their master's body, then hurried in search of a
doctor. The first to arrive was Dr. Marc Berman, a practi-
tioner of Russian origin, who happened to be in a chemist's
shop in the vicinity. He at once examined Zola and found
no signs of life, though the body was still warm. Death
had occurred little more than an hour previously, in all
likelihood shortly after eight o'clock. Turning to Madame
Zola, the doctor found her in an extremely weak state, but
some hope of saving her remained, and indeed at the expi-
ration of some twenty minutes the efforts to revive her to
consciousness began to take effect, though they had to be
continued for fully another hour.

Dr. Berman had sent to the chemist's for oxygen, ether,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFOKMER 509

and an electrical battery; and in the hope that Zola might
not he quite dead every possible effort to stimulate life was
made. Artificial respiration, rhythmical tractoration of the
tongue, injections of ether, frictions, the application of hot-
water bottles, the electrisation of the diaphragm, all the

devices known to medical science were put into practice and
persevered with for three hours by Dr. Berman and Drs.
Lenormand and Main, who joined him. But nothing had
any effect: Zola was indeed dead.1

Meantime telegrams were despatched to the novelist's
intimate friends and his wife's relatives. The district Com-
missary of Police who had been summoned, communicated
with the Prefect, and an official inquiry into the tragedy was
at once ordered. Madame Laborde, a cousin of the Zolas,
was soon on the spot, followed by M. Oharpentier, M. Fas-
quelle, M. Desmoulin, and others ; and late in the afternoon
Madame Zola was removed to Dr. Defaut's Maison de SantxS
in the Avenue du Roule, Neuilly, in such wise that the
investigations were pursued in all freedom. The bedroom
chimney proved to be both defective and obstructed ; and
when a fire was lighted and some guinea-pigs were left in
the room for a night, the animals, though still alive on the
morrow, were then found in a hebetated state.2 Meantime

1 The pet dog which had slept in the bedroom was in a very weak state,
but it had vomited during the night, and this may hare helped to save it.
Another little dog which had remained in the dressing-room had not been ill.
2 The statement current in some newspapers at the time that the fire which
had such a fatal result was of artificial fuel such as compressed coal dust was
inaccurate. Coal was employed, and the writer believes it to have been Welsh,
anthracite, for Zola bought such coal in considerable quantities, chiefly for the
electric light installation at Me* dan, whither it was brought up the Seine by
barge from Kouen. That such coal would not burn well in a defective chim-
ney is certain. It ignites with difficulty unless there be a good current of air.

510 EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

an examination of Zola's remains was made, the doctors
afterwards reporting that all the vital organs were sound,
though the blood was saturated with oxide of carbon.1 This,
it may be mentioned, fixes on the globules of the blood,
whence it expels all oxygen, thereby producing drowsiness,
numbness, and at last a species of paralysis. Perhaps in
Zola's case the blood-poisoning may not have been the only
cause of death ; for it is possible that he might have sur-
vived in spite of it, if, like his wife, he had been able to
relieve himself, and if he had not fallen on the floor of the
room, where the atmosphere, impregnated with carbonic
acid gas, may have been almost unbreathable. However,
the experts virtually agreed in ascribing the death to the
poisoning of the blood by carbonic oxide.

Madame Zola remained at Dr. Defaut's house for some
days, regaining her strength very slowly. At first her hus-
band's death was concealed from her ; she believed that he
was only ill like herself. But the sad truth had to be told,
and then, after a violent explosion of grief, realising that
she had duties to fulfil, she insisted on returning home in
spite of her weakness. It was a terrible home-coming.
Her husband's body had been embalmed with more or less
success — for signs of decomposition had set in directly after
the post-mortem examination — and laid in its coffin, which

On the other hand, it throws out little if any smoke, and it is a significant
circumstance that none was found in the bedroom.

1 The writer was in the house while the post-mortem examination was
made, and to the best of his knowledge and belief it lasted about forty min-
utes. In yiew of the stifling fits induced by a form of angina from which Zola
had suffered periodically ever since 1875, it was strange to hear that all the
organs were sound. It is not for the writer to engage in any discussion with,
medical men, but he cannot reconcile their report with the complaint from
which Zola undoubtedly suffered.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 511

was placed in the study, where much of the novelist's work
had been done. And it was there that the unhappy widow
found it. But she gave proof of no little fortitude, and speed-
ily signified her wishes and those which she knew to have
been her husband's, in order that proper arrangements
might be made in the dolorous circumstances which had
now arisen.

The tragic character of Zola's death had created a
sensation throughout the civilised world. Every day for
an entire week the vestibule of the house in the Rue de
Bruxelles was crowded with notabilities in literature, sci-
ence, art, and politics, who came to inscribe their names in
the registers. Telegrams, letters, and addresses of sympathy
were continually arriving from all parts of France and from
well-nigh every foreign country, emanating now from so-
cieties and associations, now from eminent men, now too from
members of the French and foreign Governments. Wreaths
and coronals and other combinations of flowers followed in
profusion, and a public subscription was speedily started
for a monument in Zola's honour. But the enemy did not
disarm. Vile libels were sold on the boulevards. Henri
Rochefort wrote a foul article in " L'Intransigeant," insinu-
ating that Zola had committed suicide because he had dis-
covered Dreyfus to be really guilty. Edouard Drumont
declared in "La Libre Parole " that the name of Zola inspired
horror in all who possessed French hearts. "La Patrie"
shrieked that the dead man had defended treason and vili-
fied the flag. The renegade Jews of "Le Gaulois," after
asserting that he had shown no pity for France, declared,
"Nevertheless we are Christians, and we therefore hope
that God will show some mercy to this wretched creature

512 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMEE

who knew no compassion." The said Jews, bj the way,
after the usual fashion of renegades, had never evinced the
slightest pity for the martyr of Devil's Island, but in their
Catholic fervour had fiendishly approved of the abominable
tortures devised by the Under Secretary for the Colonies,
the strangely named Lebon. As for « La Croix," the organ
of the religious orders, it viewed Zola's death with unc-
tuous complacency, admitting that, the occurrence might
well have been " a merciful accident by which at least one
crime had been spared that wretched man.31 But another
clerical rag, calling itself " Le Peuple Fran§ais," declared
with all solemnity that God had stifled Zola in punishment
for his sins.* Others enlarged on that theme : it was by no
mere coincidence, they said, that Zola had died on Michael-
mas Day, St. Michael had really descended in the Eue de
Bruxelles ! Thus Paris was again divided into two hostile
camps, Dreyfusites and anti-Dreyfusites confronting one
another threateningly as if the Affair had sprung to life
again from Zola's ashes.

There had been great changes, however, in government
circles. An insidious malady having compelled M, Waldeck-
Rousseau to resign office after carrying the policy of Repub-
lican defence no further than its first stage, the prime
ministership had passed to M. Combes, a man then, very
much misunderstood by most people, who ascribed to him a
vacillating character, whereas his friends were aware that he
really possessed a remarkably strong will, and that if he
now and again seemed to follow rather than direct the
course of events this was mere diplomacy on the part of
one who never lost sight of the goal he desired to attain.
M. Combes and his colleagues were undoubtedly on the side

Zola's Bedroom

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 513

of truth and justice, and though, in the state of public opin-
ion, they felt they could not appeal to the- Legislature to
accord a national funeral to Zola's remains, they at once
decided that the Government should participate in the
obsequies.

Zola's will, a very brief one, executed in 1883 and be-
queathing all his property to his wife, contained no indica-
tion of where or how he desired to be buried. But the
widow was well acquainted with his desires, and gave
instructions that the interment should take place in Paris
and, as in Hugo's case, without any religious rites. The
question was raised whether an application should be made
to the authorities for the military honours to which Zola
was entitled as an officer of the Legion of Honour, his sus-
pension from which had ceased with the Amnesty. It was
decided to make no such application, but to accept the hon-
ours if they were tendered, which decision was scarcely
taken when the Minister of War, General Andr4 signified
his resolve that they should be accorded. He further sent
his chef de cabinet, General Percin, to the Rue de Bruxelles
to tender his condolences, whereupon the Nationalist news-
papers began to shriek that the army was disgraced. As it
was also asserted by a writer of " Le Gaulois," a renegade
Jew named Pollonnais, that General Percin, having met
ex-Captain Dreyfus at the house, had shaken hands with
him, Count Boniface de Castellane, the notorious husband
of a daughter of Jay Gould, wrote to General Percin
inquiring if this were true. The contemptuous answer
which ensued led to a duel in which each combatant
slightly wounded the other. As a matter of fact, General
Percin had not met M. Dreyfus when he called in the Rue

514 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

de Bruxelles, and liad therefore had no occasion either to
offer or refuse him his hand.

The victim of the military and clerical factions had natu-
rally been admitted to view the remains of the man who
had so ably championed his cause, and it was also natural
that he should desire to attend the funeral. But every
effort was now being made to rouse anti-Semitic passions,
and Madame Zola dreaded lest the interment should be
disturbed by some horrible riot. She therefore begged M.
Dreyfus to refrain from attending, pointing out to him that
the police authorities, like herself, were of opinion that his
presence would give rise to great disturbances. M. Dreyfus
was deeply affected by the request ; he regarded his attend-
ance at the obsequies as a matter of duty to his defender,
and felt that everybody would accuse him of cowardice
should he hide himself away. At last Madame Zola's
entreaties prevailed, and he consented to do as she desired.
The reports of this interview which appeared in the news-
papers checked the Nationalist outcry, and on the eve of
the funeral, when it had been ascertained that the authori-
ties had decided to take every possible precaution to pre-
serve order, it was felt that the decision with respect to
M. Dreyfus might be altered. He was therefore informed
that he might attend, and he gladly availed himself of the
permission.

The obsequies were celebrated on Sunday, October 5, in
the presence of a vast concourse of people. The distance
from the Rue de Bruxelles to the place of interment, the
Montmartre cemetery, was fortunately short, and to keep the
crowd in check the Place Moncey and the Boulevard de
Clichy were lined with police and municipal guards. Two

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 515

squadrons of cavalry were also kept in readiness, though vir-
tually out of sight, one assembling on the Place Vintimille,
within a stone's-throw of the Rue de Bruxelles. Access to
that street was afforded only to the bearers of special
" laissez-passers," the numerous deputations assembling in
neighboring thoroughfares and joining the procession on the
road. In front of the house in the Rue de Bruxelles a
detachment of the Twenty-eighth Infantry of the Line was
mustered, under the command of Captain Olivier, an officer
who had always believed in the innocence of Dreyfus, and
who after refusing to participate in a subscription in honour
of the forger Henry had fought a duel with one of the latter's
partisans. Three cars bearing a profusion of wreaths, many
extremely large, — splendid chrysanthemums of various hues
being the predominant flowers, — preceded the hearse, on
which a few 'other wreaths were placed. The drums beat and
the soldiers presented arms when the coffin was brought
from the house, escorted by the pall-bearers and followed by
relatives and intimate friends. The pall-bearers were MM.
Ludovic Hal6vy and Abel Hermant, respectively Presidents
of the Soci6t6 des Auteurs Dramatiques and the Soci6t3 des
Gens de Lettres, MM. Charpentier and Fasquelle, Zola's
publishers, M. Theodore Duret, the historian, M. Alfred
Bruneau, the composer, M. Octave Mirbeau, the novelist and
playwright, who had held Zola's power of attorney during
his exile in England, and M. Briat, the secretary of the
Labour Exchange. Immediately behind the hearse walked
MM. Laborde and Loiseau, relatives of the deceased, M.
Fernand Desmoulin and Dr. Larat, intimate friends, followed
by M. Anatole France and a few others. Then came Dr.
Le Prince and Vizetelly, between whom, with his hands in

516 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

theirs, was little Jacques. . . . The representatives of the
Government followed. All the state departments were rep-
resented, aad M. Chaunrte, Minister of Public Instruction,
attended in person. Then, after a crowd of celebrities in
literature, science, art, politics, and law, came innumerable
deputations, many of them carrying wreaths and coronals,
a cortege of fifty thousand persons, advancing amid the con-
course of spectators whom the military and police held back.
The order was perfect, all heads were uncovered, all voices
stilled. As the hearse passed on, the police saluted, the
military presented arms. Again, inside the cemetery, on
either hand, all along the Avenue St. Charles, and the Ave-
nue de Montmorency, men of the Garde Rdpublic'aine stood
at attention and presented arms until the cortege at last
halted on an open space, where a tribune had been erected
for the funeral orations.

The first address was delivered by M. Chaumi<5, who began
by speaking of the terribly sudden death of the departed
author, which had sent a thrill of stupefaction through the
world. From all quarters, both at home and abroad, there
had come messages of condolence, and the Government
of the Republic had made it a point of honour to be repre-
sented at the obsequies. As others would speak of Zola's
literary genius, he (the Minister) would refer more particu-
larly to the mission which the deceased had set himself, —
that of painting so striking a picture of society, with its
sufferings, its passions, and its vices, that even those with
the poorest sight would perceive that remedial measures
were imperatively needed. Whenever a cause had seemed
to him just he had espoused it without hesitation, braving
all furious or perfidious anger, the wildest insults, the most

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFOEMER 517

unjust hatred, the most painful betrayals. And thus the
humble and the wretched, feeling that they had lost a great
friend, were now mingling their gratitude and their grief
with the admiration of those who deplored the immense loss
which had befallen literature.

It was particularly from the literary standpoint that M.
Abel Hermant next addressed the throng, and he did so ad-
mirably, setting forth both the characteristics and the limita-
tions of the genius of Zola, who had perhaps failed to show
sufficient penetration when dealing with the psychology of
certain individual characters, but who had excelled in depicting
what was called " the crowd." He had been a master in the
art of assembling facts and personages : his crowds and his
paintings of nature were full of life. And he had never
sought common popularity. He had sacrificed nothing in
order to curry favour with the multitude, as was done by
those who were eager for success at any price. Far from
flattering the masses, he had braved them, measured him-
self against them fearlessly, and not only in connection with
the terrible truths enunciated in his novels had a clamour of
anger and menace arisen around him. At last, passing to
his peroration, — a very appropriate one, — M. Hermant said :

"At the close of one of his finest works1 Zola describes a cere-
mony such as this, one unattended by a great concourse of people,
but none the less painful for the few friends pressing around the
remains of an unappreciated artist. On retiring from the graveside
one of that artist's most notable companions, one who resembles
Zola like a brother,2 speaks a few words, — words of duty, comfort,
and hope. Those words are certainly the only farewell that Zola
himself desires from us, gentlemen, and I should feel I had failed

* "L'CEuvre." 2 Sandoz.

518 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

in giving expression to one of his last desires, did I leave this
spot -without repeating those words to you. I certainly did not
think that the dnty would come so soon, nor did I think it would
be for me to lend my humble voice to my master in order to re-
mind the multitude around me of the humble yet magnificent
device of his whole life : ' Let us work ! ' "

Only discreet marks of approval had attended M. Chau-
mi#s speech. Now, however, for the first time in the day's
proceedings, a bursfc of applause rang out. But M. Hermant
had quitted the tribune, and in his place appeared M.
Anatole France, who came to bid Zola farewell on behalf
of all his friends. M. France had testified for him at
the Paris Assizes, he had supported the cause of truth
and justice from the outset, and moreover, now that Zola
was gone, his own eminent position in literature seemed all
the greater. Thus, from every standpoint, it was well that
he should have been selected to say the last words. He
spoke as follows:

"Gentlemen, — In rendering to IdJmile Zola on behalf of hia
friends the honours which are due to him I will say nothing of my
grief and theirs. Those who leave great names should not he cele-
brated by lamentations, but by manly praise and a sincere pictur-
ing of their life and work. The literary work of Zola was
immense. . . . When one saw that work arising, stone by stone,
its immensity caused surprise. Some admired, some were aston-
ished, some praised, some blamed it, Praise and blame were
bestowed with equal vehemence. The great writer was occasion-
ally assailed — I know it by my own example — with reproaches
which were sincere and yet unjust. Invectives and apologies in-
termingled, and still and ever the work grew. Now that one can
contemplate the whole of its colossal structure the spirit pervading
it may also be discerned. It was a spirit of kindliness. Zola had

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 519

a kindly nature. The candour and the simplicity of great souls
were his. He pictured vice with a rough and virtuous hand.
His seeming pessimism, the sombre humour cast over more than
one of his pages, scarcely conceals his real optimism, his stubborn
faith in the advance of human intelligence and knowledge. In his
novels, those social studies, he pursued with vigorous hatred an
idle and frivolous society, a base and baleful aristocracy ; he fought
against the evil of the age, — the power of money. Though a dem-
ocrat, he never flattered the multitude, he strove to show it what
slavery proceeds from ignorance, what dangers come from strong
drink, which delivers it over, senseless and defenceless, to every
form of oppression, every kind o£ wretchedness, every sort of
shame. He fought against social evils wherever he met them.
They were the things he hated. But in his last books he showed
the whole of his love for mankind. He strove to divine, to fore-
see, a better social state. He desired that an ever increasing
number of the human race might be called to happiness in the
world. He set his hopes on the human mind, on science. He
awaited from new powers of machinery the progressive enfran-
chisement of toiling humanity. A sincere realist, he was never-
theless an ardent idealist. In grandeur his work can only be
compared to that of Tolstoi', At the two extremities of European
thought the lyre has raised two vast ideal cities. Both are gen-
erous and pacific ; but whereas Tolstoi's is the city of resignation,
Zola's is the city of work.

" While he was still young, Zola acquired fame. In quietude
and celebrity he was enjoying the fruits of his labour when he
suddenly wrested himself from all repose, from the work which,
he loved, from the peaceful pleasures of his life. Doubtless, in
presence of a coffin only grave and serene words should be spoken,
calmness and harmony should be preserved. But you are aware,
gentlemen, that calmness is found only in justice, that repose
is found only in truth. I speak not of philosophical truth,
the subject of our endless discussions, but of that moral truth
which we can all detect because it is relative, sensible, in con-

522 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

error, lie bad denounced the conspiracy of all the forces of violence
and oppression leagued together to slay social justice, Republican-
ism, freedom of thought in France. His courageous words awoke
the country. The consequences of his deed are incalculable.
They unroll themselves to-day in power and majesty, they spread
out indefinitely, they have determined a movement of social equity
which will not stop. A new order of things is arising, based on a
better sense of justice, on a deeper knowledge of the rights of all.
" Gentlemen, there is only one country in the world where such
great things could have been accomplished. How beautiful is the
genius of our fatherland ! How beautiful is that soul of France
which in past centuries taught equity to Europe and the world 1
France is the land of ornate reason and kindly thoughts, the land
of equitable magistrates and humane philosophers, the land of Tur-
got, of Montesquieu, of Voltaire, of Malesherbes. And Zola de-
served well of the country by refusing to despair of justice in
France. We must not pity him for having endured and suffered.
Let us rather envy him ! Set above the most prodigious heap of
outrages ever raised by folly, ignorance, and malice, his glory attains
to inaccessible heights. Let us envy him : he honoured his coun-
try and the world by immense literary work and by a great deed.
Let us envy him : his destiny and his heart gave him the grandest
fate : in him at one moment was set the conscience of mankind I"

The presence of death, all around one in that great ceme-
tery, was quite forgotten when M. Anatole France ceased
speaking. Tumultuous applause arose while relatives and
friends were taking Tip their positions for the march past
of the thousands attending the obsequies. Several ladies,
Mesdames Laborde, Charpentier, Fasquelle, and others,1
had joined the family party, which stood in line on
the verge of a transverse avenue, immediately in front of
the tomb of the famous Baron Hirsch. For two hours the

i Madame Zola was not present, her relatives and friends having entreated
her to remain at home.

M. Anatole France delivering his oration
at the funeral of Emile Zola

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEB 523

march past continued. M. Dreyfus, accompanied by M.
Gabriel Monod of the Institute of France, and M. Lalance,
a former Alsatian deputy, passed unrecognised by the great
majority. But Maitre Labori and Colonel Picquart were ac-
claimed. A host of distinguished men went by, and after
them came all the deputations, the town of Denain sending
a pitman, a blacksmith, and a peasant, each attired in the cos-
tume of his calling, — the first with his " Davy/' the second
with his leather apron, the third shouldering his scythe. In
a like spirit Freemasons wore their insignia, and again and
again came wreaths of flowers and " immortelles/5 silver
palms and other tributes, borne in procession as far as the
provisional vault. Every now and then, moreover, some
deputation halted for a moment before the hearse, and cries
were raised of " Glory to Zola ! Honour to the apostle of
justice ! " Others called, " Germinal ! Germinal ! " in memory
of Zola's great book in which he had taken the part of the
toilers against the greed of the capitalists. For the rest, the
crowd was most orderly, and one was struck by the pres-
ence of an immense number of young men about twenty
years of age, the electors and artisans of the future, with
whom perhaps some day the great principles laid down by
Zola may finally triumph. Not until the vast concourse
had gone onward, one hundred and fifty persons passing
every minute, did the hearse proceed to the temporary
vault to which Zola's remains were quietly committed.
There were a few disturbances outside the cemetery, where
several parties of anti-Semites had now assembled, but these
were speedily quelled by the police and the municipal guards.
And thus the long ceremony, which had lasted some four
hours, came to an end.

524 ^MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEE

For several months, however, the great novelist's widow
continued to receive tributes of sympathy. The munici-
palities of various towns bestowed the name of Rue or
Boulevard Zola on one and another thoroughfare, thus
testifying to the revulsion of feeling in favour of Dreyfus's
champion. A considerable sum was yielded by the sub-
scription1 for a public monument to be erected in some
part of Paris, perhaps the Tuileries garden, and a design
for this monument was commissioned. In February, 1903,
the novelist's last book " V£rit£ " was published.2 Then in
March the greater part of his library was sold at the Bfetel
Drouot in Paris, some twenty-six hundred volumes being
thus dispersed.3 There was a curious illuminated manu-
script breviary of the fourteenth century which Zola had
used while writing "Le B6ve," and numerous historical,
philosophical, medical, and other scientific works, with
some volumes of voyages and travels, and collections of
periodicals. None of the above, the breviary excepted, were
of much value, but considerable interest attached to a very
large collection of presentation copies of modern novels and
stories, including all those of Guy de Maupassant and many

1 The writer "believes that tho subscription still remains open (March
1904), the amount received not being quite sufficient for a monument on the
scale which the committee has in view. The treasurer is M. Lucien Fon-
taine, 1 Rue Jacob, Paris. The committee is a representative one of dis-
tinguished Frenchmen.

2 * * Ve"rite, " Paris, Fasquelle, 1 8mo, 749 pages. Presentation copies and those
of the first thousand with a mourning border on their covers.

8 It is certain that the fortune left by Zola was of very moderate amount,
for he had never hoarded money. Besides the large sums he had expended
in connection with the Dreyfus case, he had for many years discharged a
number of family obligations with respect to relatives in modest circum-
stances both in Italy and France. He was also the providence of the poorer
peasantry around M6dan, and the number of struggling young writers whom
he helped with his purse was large.

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMER 525

by the Goncourts, Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse Daudet,
Paul Bourget, Hal^vy, Huysmans, Marcel Provost, Anatole
France, Claretie, and others. All those works were in-
scribed to Zola by their authors. In a copy of Flaubert's
"Tentation de St. Antoine" were written the words, "&
Zola un solide que faime " ; while the " Trois Contes " con-
tained the inscription "& EmiU Zola, Ion "bougre! et du
talent / son meux, ffve. Flaubert." Some interest attached
also to M. Waldeck-Bousseau's " Questions Sociales/' pub-
lished in 1900, for it was inscribed hc& Emile Zola en
temoignage df admiration " — and yet M. Waldeck-Eousseau
was the statesman who in that same year carried the
Amnesty Law against which Zola so strongly protested !
From this little circumstance one can divine what were
M. Waldeck-Rousseau's private sentiments, whatever may
have been his public declarations with respect to the
Affair. The books sold at the HCtel Drouot comprised
also many of the translations of Zola's novels in different
foreign languages, and the sale further included a variety
of tapestry, curios, and works of art. The total proceeds
were about six thousand one hundred pounds. It may be
added that more than eight hundred of the inscribed pres-
entation volumes were purchased by Mr. James Carleton
Young, a well-known American book-collector, of Minne-
apolis, who proposes to establish in that city a magnificent
library, in which every work will bear an inscription by its
author. Autograph letters and manuscripts are also to be
included in the collection, which already comprises several
thousand volumes by dead and living writers in virtually all
languages.1

1 Mr. Young Las acquired some scores of letters written by Zola, notably
several bearing on Ms attempts to gain admission to the French Academy.

526 iMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

It remains to be added here that on May 26, 1903, in
the presence of a few relatives and friends, Zola's remains
were quietly translated from their provisional resting-place
to a tomb — designed by M. Frantz-Jourdain — facing the
rand-point or open space near the entrance of the Mont-
martre cemetery. There they will probably remain until
the French nation decrees their removal to the Pantheon.

CONCLUSION
THE INFLUENCE AND SURVIVAL OF ZOLA'S WORKS

The tragic elements in Zola's life — His place in Mstory — Consequences of
Ms action in the Dreyfus case — Survival of his novels — His influence
on other writers — Social influence of some of his books — Zola's apostolic
fervour — His prophetic instinct — "Germinal," "Travail," "Paris,"
and the French masses — Zola's unwritten book "Justice" — Result of
his denunciations of vice — Immorality in Paris — Drunkenness in France
— "Why Zola should be remembered.

SUCH was the life, such also the death, of the greatest fighter
that Prance produced In the latter half of the nineteenth
century. The foregoing narrative, whatever may be its im-
perfections, will at least have given the reader some idea of
that strenuous career which from youth onward was one
long battle, an incessant expenditure of will, energy, and
talent. It was also, like a battle, a resounding career, most
of whose phases echoed all around. In the time of Alex-
andre Dumas pere it used to be said, "When Dumas
sneezes, all Paris starts " ; and the same might have been
subsequently said of Zola, some of whose " sneezes," indeed,
reverberated far beyond Paris or even Prance. Looking at
his life from another standpoint it will be found akin to a
tragedy in several respects, — not the kind of tragedy which
suggests thoughts of blood, thunder, and thrilling horrors,
but one of hidden suffering and unrealised aspirations. That
may be regarded perhaps as a petty, commonplace sort of
tragedy, such as is enacted here and there every day, and

528 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

left unrecorded. In Zola's case we see aspirations, efforts,
struggles, disappointments, domestic trouble, misrepresenta-
tion, insult, and hatred, ending in death by accident, with,
just a few years of popularity and wealth thrown in to
deepen, by force of contrast, the shadows of the rest. Even
if we regard Zola's tragedy as that of a man's fight for the
benefit of his fellowmen against those men themselves —
and such it largely was — most of its features will be found
to be of a familiar kind. One often perceives heroes and
heroines, enthusiastic workers, fighters, and thinkers, who
think not like the herd, who strive solely for that which
they themselves deem to be right. Few achieve their pur-
pose; the majority fail, disappear, die — as often as not —
broken-hearted. Yet with a new generation others always
arise to renew the combat. Now and again one of these
enthusiasts secures a modicum of success, attains perhaps
a hundredth part of his ambition, effects a hundredth part
of the good he has dreamt of, leaves among many sugges-
tions a single useful one behind him. But though the suc-
cess of each individual worker may be very slight, that
which he accomplishes is not lost ; joined to what is accom-
plished by other workers, it enlarges the sum of progress.
Each additional grain of wheat means an increase of the
harvest, and of those who bring that grain to the store it
may be said that even if they have failed in nine tenths of
their efforts their failure is only relative.

In Zola's career, as in the careers of most men, there was
both failure and success. Near as he still is to us, it is
difficult to tell how far his measure of success will be perma-
nent, how far his work and memory will survive him. We
believe that by his action in the Dreyfus case he carved for

$MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 529

himself an imperishable niche in the history of his country.
Assuredly no historian, whatever his school, whatever his
opinions, will be able to omit Zola's name from any record
of the Third French Republic, for, as M. Anatole Trance said
at his graveside, the consequences of Zola's action in the
Affair have been immense. Far-reaching changes in the
internal policy of France have proceeded from his deed,
which led to a disclosure of the real sentiments of those
Clericalists and Militarists who were closing in upon the
Republic to destroy it. For a time the issue seemed doubt-
ful ; but tho policy of Republican defence was inaugurated
by M. Waldeck-Rousseau and has proceeded and expanded
under his successor, M. Combes. To Zola and his letter
" «P Accuse," and to the letter's various consequences, many
of the events which have occurred in France since 1898 may
be easily traced, even by those who know nothing of the
novelist's political friendships, of his private intercourse
with statesmen who during the Dreyfus turmoil lacked
either the opportunity or the energy to intervene, and who,
while privately assuring Zola of their sympathy, their con-
viction even that he was right, repeated to him : " Unfor-
tunately I am not in office and I am therefore powerless.
Besides, though I see the danger which you point out, it is
very difficult to deal with. One must act with extreme
prudence, for the patriotism of the electorate is aroused, and
the Republic might be wrecked by precipitate action."
Subsequently, after the death of F&ix Faure, who was too
deeply committed to the military party to take any honest,
impartial action, some of the men who had held such lan-
guage as one has indicated came to the front again, and

then, as they gradually took confidence, things slowly

530 £MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

changed. When the secret history of the Dreyfus affair
from the political standpoint comes to be written, there
will doubtless be more than one curious disclosure in which
Zola will figure.

We take it, then, that he is assured of a niche in French
history. The question of the ultimate survival of his novels
is more difficult to determine. He himself declared on one
occasion, in a public speech, that it was great honour for a
literary man if he were only for one moment the spokesman
of his generation and were even fated to oblivion afterward.
Of course he, like other writers, aspired to some future fame.
At any rate, even as he will figure in national history in
connection with the Affair, so must his novels figure — and
figure prominently, we think — in literary history. Can one
imagine any record of the literary movement in the latter
half of the nineteenth century containing no mention of
Zola's writings ? Independently of the writings themselves
account has to be taken of their influence on other authors,
not merely in France, but virtually all the world over.
Zola always disclaimed any intention of founding a literary
school. He protested repeatedly against such a suggestion.
He had imitators certainly ; all prominent writers have.
But apart from those who deliberately set themselves to
copy his methods, there were others, more independent, who
in one or another respect yielded to his influence. Some-
thing of the Naturalism of the Rougon-Macquart series at
least found its way into the English novel, in which also
there came a reflection of Zola's later manner. Mr. George
Moore may deny that he sprang from Zola, and may claim
direct descent, as Zola did, from Flaubett and others. But
in any case the principles on which Mr. Moore has often

SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEFORMEK 531

worked have been the same as those which Zola adopted.
Nearer to Zola in some respects was the late Mr. George
Gissing, who in others suggested Maupassant. The late
Mr. Frank Norris, the American novelist, was manifestly
influenced by Zola's later works; and it seems at least
likely that various books by Mr. Hall Caine and Miss Marie
Corelli would never have been written if Zola had not
raised certain problems in such volumes as " Lourdes " and
" Borne." Of Mr. Thomas Hardy it may be said perhaps,
as of Mr. George Moore, that he has at least occasionally
worked on lines running parallel to those on which Zola
worked for years* It would be possible also to enumerate
a large number of instances in which Zola's liberating in-
fluence has clearly appeared, even when his actual methods
have not been followed. One may claim for him that he
contributed largely and powerfully to free the modern
novel from many shackles, with a result which is conspicu-
ous on all sides. That nothing but Naturalism should
remain in fiction as the result of his theories and efforts,
was of course out of the question. Zola himself admitted
that he had been a mere sectarian when, in a dogmatic
moment he had once suggested it But certainly he
helped to sweep away many conventionalities, and encour-
age an accurate presentment of life. Fiction, or at least
that branch of it which claims to portray real life, is no
longer the same as it was before he arose, and it seems
hardly likely that it will ever revert to its former state.

"With respect to the actual survival of his books as cur-
rent literature, that, we think, will depend almost as much
on circumstances as on their merits. They are not light
reading. He himself was well aware of it, and, as we know,

532 EMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND KEFORMEB

he said of himself, the Goncourts, and others, that future
generations might well find their works difficult to read.
Many already find it difficult to read Balzac, though he
possessed a gift of humour which was lacking in Zola.
On the other hand, Zola's style was generally much supe-
rior to Balzac's, though the latter was a good grammarian
and could write admirable straightforward French when
he pleased, as witness many letters in his "Correspond-
ence." In the case both of Balzac and of Zola some
knowledge of French history, politics, manners, and other
matters is necessary for a proper understanding of their
works. "Les Rougon-Macquart," like "La Com^die Hu-
maine," can only be fully appreciated by those who are
familiar with the period it treats of; and though Zola
usually confined himself to the elemental passions which
are also the eternal ones, it is perhaps doubtful whether
works of fiction which tax the reader's knowledge in
many ways can hope for immortality. Yet possibly the
Rougon-Macquart series has a better chance of survival
than is possessed by some of Zola's other books, whose
social influence has been greater. Influence of that kind
has certainly been exercised by some of the Rougon-
Macquart volumes, though not in the same degree as by such
great machines de guerre as " Lourdes " and " Rome," which
reinforced by "V<Srit4" have proved factors of weight in
the great struggle between clericalism and free thought in
Trance. As engines of warfare for use in that struggle,
they may survive for many years; but the struggle ceas-
ing they would probably be soon forgotten, as is usually
the case with books whose purpose is too ostensible. That
example will explain the meaning of our remark that the

£MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER 533

survival of many of Zola's works will depend on circum-
stances. In the final triumph of the principles which his
last and unfinished series enunciated, we feel considerable
confidence. We believe, as Zola did, that the whole world
is tending slowly but surely to better things, that we
shall come at last to a more natural and more upright life,
that increase of knowledge will bring increase of truth,
increase of equity, and that the day will come when science
will at last confound all superstitions.

One of the men for whom the novelist in his latest years
testified the most respect was M. Berthelot, the eminent
scientist, long the friend of Renan. It says much for M.
Berthelot that he should have exercised considerable influ-
ence on two such men, but it should be remembered that if
they differed in many ways they also had their points of
contact. Though Zola was no priest, whereas Renan re-
mained one in some essential respects until the end, he had
in him an apostolic fervour which many a priest might have
envied. Even in the days of the Rougon-Macquart novels,
which were so impersonal, that fervour displayed itself freely
in all Zola's miscellaneous papers, his literary, theatrical,
and art criticisms. And it is somewhat remarkable that
with this strong fervour within him he should so long
have contrived to check and subdue it directly he turned
from an essay to a novel. When he ceased to do so and
allowed it to invade his novels, the cry of "a new Zola!"
arose among those whose knowledge of his writings was
confined to his earlier fiction.

Besides his apostolic fervour, Zola, like Renan, possessed
a kind of prophetic instinct, which proceeded from the ex-
ercise to which he constantly subjected his brain. Every

534 $MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

time when in preparing a new novel he had assembled a
number of facts, he proceeded to draw deductions from them,
to weigh all probabilities and possibilities ; and his mind
being thus trained, dealt in the same way with all the cur-
rent events in which he took interest. During his year's
stay in England at the time of the Dreyfus case he re-
peatedly told the writer that he felt sure so-and-so would
happen, and in nine cases out of ten his predictions were
accurate. At times when the writer went to him with a
preconceived opinion or some forecast taken from a news-
paper it was particularly interesting to hear him analyse it,
examine it under every aspect, and confirm or refute it in
accordance with his view of the probabilities. On such
occasions his systematical and logical mind was fully re-
vealed; and one may say that the prescience which he often
displayed was far more a matter of knowledge and logic
than of inspiration* The latter undoubtedly came to his
aid on some notable occasions, but even when he so fer-
vently declared his belief in the innocence of Captain Drey-
fus— at a time when all positive proof thereof seemed
lacking — he at least had some logical basis for his belief
which his expertness in deduction had intensified.1

It has been pointed out that several of Zola's later books
influenced the community, or at least a large section of it,
in connection notably with the struggle between Church
and State in France. " Germinal" and " Travail," which cir-
culated widely among the working classes, must also have
exercised considerable influence. Of recent years the latter

1 As the result of constant exercise, his mind often worked with great
rapidity in these matters, the various aspects of a case and its possibilities
coming to him almost in a flash.

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND BEFOKMER 535

work has frequently furnished subjects for lectures delivered
to working-class audiences in the French provinces as well
as in Paris ; and although, as was remarked in a previous
chapter, " Travail " may not be in some respects a very prac-
tical work, its pacific tendencies are admirable, and the
worker who comes under their influence can but reject the
more violent courses which some leaders of advanced opin-
ions have preached. Again, "Paris/1 which is not held to be
one of Zola's greatest books, has met with no little favour
among the masses, less because it paints the corruption ex-
isting in some spheres of society than because it gives voice
to the chief demand of the masses, which is for justice.
It does not treat the subject fully, being more concerned
with the failure of charity to cope with the necessities of
the modern world, but it indicates that justice should take
charity's place, and this accords so well with the feeling of
the multitude that the favour accorded to the book is but
natural.

If Zola had lived another year he would have dealt
exhaustively with that subject of social justice, — equity
between class and class, man and man. It was to have been
treated in the last volume of his "Evangiles." Only two
days before his death, on the eve of his return from M^dan
to Paris, he wrote to his publisher, M. Fasquelle, that on the
following Monday morning he should begin to prepare that
concluding work. He was unable to do so, for on the morn-
ing stated he died ; and foul-minded bigots, on hearing of his
intention, repeated with a sneer, " He was going to begin
' Justice ' — well, justice has been done to him." But what-
ever vileness may have come from men who ever had the
words " We are Christians " on the tip of their tongues or at

536 SIMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFORMER

the point of their pens, all those who are in any degree op-
pressed may well regret that the hand of death robbed them
of a powerful statement of their rights.1

It would not appear that the flagellation of vice which
one finds in the Bougon-Macquart novels has had any wide-
spread effect in Prance, though it has undoubtedly done
good in individual cases. From the general standpoint Paris
shows little sign of improvement in some matters. The
number of illegitimate births and the number of divorce
cases remain extremely large. It may be said, however,
that these point less to absolute immorality than to new
conceptions of marriage and discontent with existing laws.
With respect to the illegitimate births one finds the
fathers of the children constantly recognising their patern-
ity in the official declarations of birth, and thereby mak-
ing themselves responsible for the upbringing of the
little ones. The fact is that cohabitation without mar-
riage seems to increase, while there is a falling off both in the
number of marriages and in the cases of desertion following
seduction.

As regards " L'Assommoir," respecting which the writer
has often cordially re-echoed the opinion that it is one of the
greatest temperance tracts ever written, one can only say
that, like other books of Zola's, it has done good in individual
instances, but has failed to stem the general passion for
strong drink. The sobriety of the French nation was at
one time almost proverbial, but there has been a great
change in that matter since the War of 1870. The efforts

1 Zola left behind liinx the libretto of a drame lyrique, "L'Enfant Eoi,"
which, M. Bruneau has since set to music, and which is to be performed
at the Ope"ra Comique ia Paris,

ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOEMER 537

of various kinds made to check the consumption of alcohol
in Paris itself have in a measure proved successful, the
average having been reduced during recent years from nine
to seven quarts per annum per head of the population. But
Normandy tells a terrible tale : At Caen the consumption is
fifteen quarts per head, at Rouen it is over sixteen, at Havre
it is seventeen, and at Cherbourg, eighteen. It is not sur-
prising, therefore, to find that the depopulation of Normandy
is proceeding apace, that the women, who are as much ad-
dicted to drink as the men, can seldom bear children, and
that even when they become mothers they are unable to
suckle their babes. Thus one of the sturdiest races of France
is perishing, destroyed by cider and potato spirit. The
very children often drink on their way to school, insanity
flourishes, and immorality is widespread,1

But reforms are not accomplished in a day ; and in many
instances authors may write in vain, even as the clergy may
preach, if legislation does not come to their aid. In some
matters even legislation is futile, and then reform can only
come gradually, as the result of example and knowledge.
To improve the nation you must usually begin by improv-
ing the individual. If, then, Zola succeeded in his aims in
individual cases — and the writer holds strongly that he
did — he effected all that he could reasonably hope for. He
did not stamp out vice in France. Neither has the State

1 In the autumn of 1902 the writer was a guest at one of the monthly
dinners of the French Society of Anthropology. Several members had lately
returned from Normandy where they had "been making exhaustive inquiries
into the subject referred to above. The consensus of opinion was that the
drink curse had caused greater ravages in Normandy than in any other part
of Europe.

538 :&MILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND EEPORMEE

done so, nor has the Church, nor has any other powerful
and wealthy organisation. Zola had only his brain and his
pen, and with those weapons he did his best, according to
his lights. He was all sincerity ; hypocrisy was the thing
he most detested. He fought the good fight. After setting
forth the evil that was, he preached the cleanly and the
fruitful life, brotherliness, equity, rectitude, and truthfulness.
He desired the suppression of all noxious agents, and it was
because he regarded the Eoman Church as such that he
assailed it so fiercely. Moreover, he did not share the
delusion which imagines a heaven beyond the skies; he
wished to set a heaven in this our planet. That was his
ideal. He did not believe in resignation. He placed his
faith in work and effort He loved his Mother Earth, he
pictured her beauties. He loved his fellowmen; in his
harshest moments he sought their good only. The one
error of his life showed how human he was. If he were
ambitious it was that he might advocate the principles
in which he believed, with more and more authority. In
a dim and dolorous hour,

" when God himself seemed dumb
And all his arching skies were in eclipse,"

this abused and insulted novelist turned from his work and
smote for truth and justice. Others shall decide whether
he was a man of genius ; suffice it for us that, all his life,
he was a man of bravery. He feared none. If there was
tragedy in his career, he knew how to bear it. He felt, he
prophesied, the day would come when justice would be done
to him. That day is hastening; and in whatever estima-

ilMILE ZOLA, NOVELIST AND REFOKMEB 539

tion his writings may be held hereafter, whether some
survive, whether all sink into oblivion, his memory will
assuredly abide for many generations, for the world does
not willingly forget those who teach it courage, — the first,
the foremost quality that life demands of man.

APPENDIX
A

DECLARATION OF THE BIRTH OF &MILE ZOLA

The year 1840, this fourth day of April, at a quarter past
two o'clock in the afternoon, before us, Barth£Lemy Benoist
Decau, knight of the Legion of Honour, Mayor of the Third
Arrondissement of Paris, discharging the functions of regis-
trar of births, deaths, and marriages, there has appeared the
Sieur Francois Antoine Joseph Marie Zola, civil engineer,
forty-four years of age, residing in Paris at No. 10 bis E.ue
St. Joseph, who has presented to us a child of the male sex,
born the day before yesterday, at eleven o'clock in the even-
ing, at the appearer's residence, being the son of the said ap-
pearer and of Frangoise 3lJmiIie Aubert, his wife, married in
Paris at the municipal offices of the First Arrondissement, on
March 16, 1839; to which said child the appearer has given
the forenames of iSmile i)douard Charles Antoine. Entered in
the presence of Norbert Lecerf, grocer, age fifty-two years,
residing in Paris, at No. 18 Rue St. Joseph, and of Louis
fitienne Auguste Aubert, of independent means, age fifty-six
years, residing in Paris at No. 106 Rue de Cl^ry, maternal
grandfather of the said child. And after perusal of the
present the father and the witnesses have signed, ZoiiA,
LECERF, AUBEUT, DECAU, mayor.

DECLABATION OF THE DEATH OF ZOLA

The year 1902, this thirtieth day of September, before us,
Mayor of the Ninth Arrondissement of Paris, declaration has

542 APPENDIX

been made of the death, of Monsieur Simile Zola, officer of the
Legion, of Honour, homme de lettres, who died the twenty-
ninth September in Paris, at his residence, situated JTo. 21 bis
Eue de Bruxelles, at the age of sixty-two years. Son of the
deceased Francois Zola, engineer, and of the deceased ^milie
Aubert. Husband of Madame Alexandrine Gabrielle Zola,
nee Meley. In testimony of which the declaring witnesses
have signed with us, LABOBI, M. DTTTARD, , mayor.

NOTE OK SOME ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OE ZOLA'S NOVELS

Some information respecting the first editions, etc., of Zola's
writings has been given in a number of footnotes in the
course of the present volume. That information is by no
means exhaustive, hut pending the appearance of a complete
bibliography, which will surely be undertaken before long, it
may be acceptable to various readers and book-collectors, For
the convenience of those who are unacquainted with Trench,
the author here appends a list of the translations in the Eng-
lish language which are known to him. Unfortunately he has
no acquaintance with the great majority of those issued in
America. Should the present volume be reprinted, and in-
formation concerning American translations be supplied to
him through his publisher, he will endeavour to include it in
a future edition. He may mention now that he believes
several translations of merit have been made in the United
States by Mr. Benjamin B. Tucker.

With respect to the English translations those published by
Vizetelly & Co. between 1884 and 1889 were the following :
"The Fortune of the Kougons," "The Rush for the Spoil"
("La Curde"), "A Love Episode" («Une Page d' Amour «),
"Fat and Thin" ("Ventre de Paris"), "The Conquest of
Plassans," "AbbS Mouret's Transgression," "His Excellency

APPENDIX 543

E. Kougon/' "The Assommoir," "Nana/' "Piping-Hot"
("Pot-Bouille"), "The Ladies' Paradise" ("AuBonheur des
Dames "), " How Jolly Life is ! " (" La Joie de Vivre "), " Ger-
minal/' "His Masterpiece" (" L'QEuvre "), "The Soil" ("La
Terre"), "Madeleine Ferat," "Ther&se Kaquin," and "A
Soldier's Honour" (short stories). All the above were issued
in crown octavo form. There were also large octavo editions
of "Nana," "The Assommoir/' and "Piping-Hot/' each with
about one hundred illustrations. The smaller volumes also
contained illustrations or frontispieces. After the first pro-
ceedings at law against the publishers, most of the above
translations were re-expurgated and re-issued. The re-issues
were distinguished from the earlier editions by the words
"A new Edition," and by the heading "The Eougon-Macquart
Family," I, II, III, etc., which heading does not appear on
the title-pages of the first and fuller editions. There was,
however, no such re-issue of "Nana," "Piping-Hot," and
" The Soil." In some early catalogues " Claude's Confession "
was announced by the firm, but the writer does not find that
it was ever published. The above translations are all out of
print, with the exception of "The Soil," which is sold in
France only by the proprietor of the copyright of that trans-
lation (Paris, Flammarion). In consequence of the convic-
tion of Henry Vizetelly it may not be sold in the British
dominions.

The English translations now in circulation in Great Britain
are enumerated below. Here and there in the list the writer
has mentioned some American editions known to him. In
the case of the Kougon-Macquart series the order in which
the volumes are placed is that in which they should be read.

EOTJGON-MACQUA.BT SERIES,

I. "The Fortune of the Eougons," edited with an intro-
duction by Ernest A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto and Windus,
St. Martin's Lane.

544 APPENDIX

II. " His Excellency " (« Son Exc. E.' Kougon "), edited, etc.,
by E. A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto. The same, published in
New York by the Macinillan Co.

"La Cur£e" should follow here, but there is no English
version on sale.

III. " Money " (" V Argent "), translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.

IV. "The Dream" ("Le B§ve"), translated by Eliza E.
Chase. Eight illustrations. London, Chatto.

V. "The Conquest of Plassans," edited, etc., by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.

" Pot-Bouille " should follow here, but no English version
is in circulation.

VI. "The Ladies5 Paradise" ("Au Bonheur des Dames"),
edited, etc., by E. A. Vizetelly. Frontispiece. London, Hutch-
inson & Co., Paternoster Eow.

VIL " Abb4 Mourefs Transgression," edited, etc., by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.

VIII. "A Love Episode" ("Une Page d' Amour "), trans-
lated by E. A. Vizetelly. Ninety-four illustrations. London,
Hutchinson.

IX. "The Fat and the Thin" ("Le Ventre de Paris"),
translated by E. A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto.

X. "The Joy of Life," edited, etc., by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.

XI. "The Dram Shop" ("L'Assommoir"), edited, etc., by
E. A... Vizetelly. London, Chatto.

XII. "His Masterpiece" (" L'GEuvre "), edited, etc., by E.
A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto.

XIII. "The Monomaniac" ("La B6te Humaine"), trans-
lated by Edward Vizetelly (see ante, p. 248, footnote). Lon-
don, Hutchinson.

XIV. "Germinal," edited by E. A. Vizetelly. London,
Chatto.

" Nana " should follow here, but no English version of the

APPENDIX 545

slightest value is in circulation, though of this and a few
other volumes there are some paltry adaptations, which omit
from a third to half of those works as they stand in the
original French.

After " Nana " should come "La Terre," no English version
of which is sold in Great Britain.

XV. " The Downfall » (" La DeMcle "), translated by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.

An American translation, under the same title, by E. P.
Bobins, was published by the Cassell Co., New York, 1893.
The Macmillan Co. also catalogues a translation, perhaps the
same.

XYI. "Doctor Pascal," translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.

An American translation by Mary J. Serrano is published
by the Macmillan Co., New York.

The «TROIS VILLES" series: I, "Lourdes," II, "Borne,"
and III, " Paris," as translated by Ernest A. Vizetelly, is pub-
lished in London by Chatto and Windus, in New York
by the Maomillan Co.

Of Zola's last series, " LES QUATRE ^VANGILES," only three
volumes were issued, the translations being as follows :

I. "Fruitfulness" ("F6condit£"), translated by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto ; New York, Doubleday.

II. "Work" (" Travail"), translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.

An American translation, called "Labor" is issued by
Messrs. Harper, New York.

III. "Truth" ("V&it6"), translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto ; New York, John Lane.

There are also the following translations of Zola's miscel-
laneous novels and short stories : —

546 APPENDIX

I. "Therese Raquin," translated by Edward Vizetelly,
London, Grant Bichards.

II. "A Dead Woman's Wish" ("Le Voeu d'une Morte "),
translated by Count C. S. de Soissons. London, Greening.

III. "The Mysteries of Marseilles/' translated by Edward
Vizetelly. London, Hutchinson,

IV. "The Honour of the Army and other Stories" ("Le
Capitaine Burle," "Nai's Micoulin," "Nantas," etc.), edited by
E. A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto. This volume is not identical
vith the one called " A Soldier's Honour," formerly published
by Vizetelly & Co., some of the tales contained in the latter
having been omitted, and others added.

V. " Stories for Ninon " (" Contes a Ninon " and " Nouveaux
Contes a Ninon"), translated by Edward Vizetelly. 2 vols.
London, Heinemann.

VI. " The Attack on the Mill," etc. London, Heinemann.
One may also mention Zola's ft Letters to Prance " (Dreyfus

case), introduction by L. P. Austin. London and New York,
John Lane.

INDEX

ABOUT, Edmond, 67, 87, 98, 172, 173,
185, 249

Academy, French, 216, 218, 306 et
seq.f 336

Adam. Mme. Edmond, 189

Addlestone, Zola at, 469, 470, 477

Aix in Provence, Zola Canal at, 15,
25, 26, 29, 40, 41 ; funeral of P.
Zola at, 27, 28; his widow's
troubles at, 29, 32 et seq. ; is
the Plassans of the Rougon-Mac-
quarts, 30, 115 ; history and celeb-
rities of, 30, 31 ; Zola's homes at,
32, 33, 34, 46; college of, 32, 35
et seq., 46: King Renews "chim-
ney " at, 39 ; environs of, 40 et
seq. ; Zola's holidays at, 49, 51 ;
referred to, 350, 351, 400

Alexis, Paul, 37, 63, 146, 147, 158,
162, 191, 367, 371

Algeria, F, Zola in, 8 et aeq, ; anti-
Semitic riots in, 446

Allen, Grant, 298

Allier, Raoul, 447

American Literature in 1840, 19

Amicis, B. de, 371

Amnesty Bill in Dreyfus Case, 487 et

Andri, General, 488, 513
Angina, Zola's, 393, 475, 510
Animals, Zola's love of, 398, 401, 475

et seq.
Anonymity in Journalism, Zola on,

327, 330, 331
Anti-Semitism in Prance, 417 et seq.,

431, 442, 445, 446, 450, 459
Arc, river, 40, 42
Archer, William, 298
Arithmomania, Zola's, 392, 504
Army, French, anti-Semitism in the,

427 et seq. See also Staff, Mili-
tarism, etc.

Asquith, H. H., Q. C., 268, 269, 277
Atheneeum Club, 332:
Aubert, Franchise ESmilie, see Zola,

F. B.
• Louis Btienne, grandfather of

B. Zola, 16, 29, 32, 46, 47, 69, 541
Mme., grandmother of B. Zola,

18, 29, 32, 33, 34, 46
Aubryet, Xavier, 89
Audiffret-Pasquier, Duke d', 307
Augier, EJmile, 86, 112, 185, 202
Austria, F. Zola in, 7, 8
Authors' Club, the, 328, 329, 332, 333
Avory, H., 270

BAILLB, J. B., 38, 39, 48, 49, 70, 97,

100

Ballet, Zola and the, 430
Balzac, Honore" de, 21, 105, 106, 108,

111, 121, 190, 306, 384, 389, 395,

532

Banville, T. de, 59
Bar, French, traditions of the, 449,

450

Barbey d'Aure>illy, 77, 190
Bardoux, Agenor, 174 et seq., 239
Barrifere, Theodore, 112, 202
Baudelaire, 86
Baudry, 185

Beauce, La, 16, 219, 229, 230, 232
Beauchamp, Zola calls himself, 470

et seq.

Beauharnais, Eugene de, 6
Becque, Henri, 388
B6hard, B., 91, 147
Bellanger, Marguerite, 186
Belleville and Gambetta, 198
Belot, Adolphe, 102
Bennecourt, Zola at, 96, 97
Benodet, Anse de, 218
Bergerat, M., 146
Berman, Dr., 508
Bernabei, Signor, 411
Bernadotte, 428
Bernard, Claude, 183, 311
Berryer, 449
Berthelot, M., 447, 533
Berton, Mme., 170
Besant, Sir W., 298, 328
Betham-Bdwards, Miss, 381
Billot, General, 9, 435, 440 et seq.,

444, 447, 462
Birth of & Zola, 18, 541
Bogue, David, 247
Boileau, 374

Boisdeffre, General de, 440, 444, 451
Boissier, Gaston, 414
Bonaparte, Princess Mathilde, 75, 119.

See also Napoleon
Bonnetain, Paul, 234 et seq.
Bontoux, financier, 421
Bordeaux, Zola at, 127 et seq., 131 ;

riots at, 446
Bordereau* the, 433
Borinage, the, 220
Bornier, Henri de, 310
Borthwick, Sir A. (Lord Glenesk),

297

Bouchor, M., 146
Boudet, Dr., 64
Bouffar, Zulma, 186

548

INDEX

Boulancy, Mme. de, 437

Boulanger, General, 233, 234, 421,

422

" Boule de Suif," 192
Bourdilliat, M., 88, 90
Bourget, Paul, 262, 286, 385
"Bovary. Madame," 22, 72, 78, 111,

123, 14$, 147, 163, 262, 286
Bow Street Police Court, H. Vize-

telly at, 268, 286
Boycott of Paris Exhibition, 485
" Boy's Own Book," the, 245
Bradlaugh, C., 298
Brfial, M., 447

Brescia, 2, 35 ; Zola at, 412
Brett, G., 477
Bridge, Sir John, 268
Brieux, M., 389

Brisson, Henri, 462 et seq., 476, 477
British Museum, Zola at the, 334, 335
Broglie, Duke de, 307
Brough, R. B., 247
Browning, Oscar, 298
Bruneau, Alfred, 191, 304, 388, 407,

430, 454, 498, 515
Brunetifcre. P., 103, 310, 323
Buchanan, Robert, 297, 298, 313, 314,

340
Buckingham Palace, Zola's view of,

336

Bulow, Count von, 448
Burnett, Mrs. F. H., 298
Burnham, Lord, see Lawson
Burty, Philippe, 146
Busnach, William, 177, 201, 202, 219,

226, 233, 288

, M., 185

Caine, Hall, 298, 531
Caird, Mrs. Mona, 298
Cameron, Dr. C., M. P., 297
Carnot, President, 238
*' Carroll, Lewis," 345
Castagnary, 124
Castellane, Count B. de, 513
Castel-Sarrazin, Zola and, 128 et seq.
Castiglione, Countess de, 186, 351
Cavaignac, Godefroy, 448, 462 et

seq., 474

Cavalie", G., 127, 128
CSard, Henri, 146, 162, 191, 207, 233,

415

Censorship, theatrical, 201, 226, 303
Central Criminal Court, H. Vizetelly

at the, 269, 274 et seq.., 291 et seq.
Cerise, Dr., 89
Cezanne, Paul, 38, 39, 48, 49, 55, 70,

91, 92, 96, 97
Chabrillat, Henri, 178, 203
Chamberlain, J., M. P., 277
Chamber of Deputies, Dreyfus case

in the, 434, 445, 448, 463
Chambers, Sir T-, Recorder, 276, 280,

281,*294

Chanoine, General, 474
Characteristics, personal, of Zola, 391

et seq.

Charonne, Gambetta at, 197 et seq.
Charpentier, Alexandre, 490

- George, publisher, 98, 135 et
seq,, 146, 148, 154. 156, 194, 209,
302, 321, 368, 465, 469, 509, 515

- Gustave, composer, 389

Chateaubriand, F. R. de, 20, 145, 146,

374, 404

Chateaudun, Zola at, 232
Chatto, Andrew, 316, 334, 460, 477, 478
Chatto and Windus, 284, 316
Chaumie, M., 384, 516
Cheeses, Zola's symphony of, 142, 143
Cherbuliez, V., 161, 172, 249
Children, Zola's, 400 et seq..
Chopin, 404

Cladel, Le*on, 161, 172, 173
Claretle, Jules, 160, 161, 172, 173,

174,311
Clarke, Sir B., Q. C., 277 et aeq., 291

et seq.

H. Savile, 298

Clay, Henry, 403

Clemenceau, G., 447, 458, 465, 466

Cluer, A. R., 275, 288, 289, 291, 292

Cock, Mr. Q. C., 289, 291 et seq.

Cockburn, Ld. Ch. Justice, 277

Coffin, Dr. R. M., 298

Collins, Mabel, 298

Combe, Colonel, 11

Combes, M., Prime Minister, 512

"Comic Almanack, Cruikshank V 245

Commons, House of, debate on Zola's

novels, etc., 262 et seq.
Compiegne, imperial court at, 151,

Comte, A., 395

"Confession," Zola's, 398

Copp&i, F., 50, 116, 146, 309

Corelli, Marie, 531

Corfu, 5

Corot, 95

Coste, Numa, 97, 147

Cotton, J. S., 298

Couesdon, Mile., 417

Courbet, 94

Cour de Cassation and Zola, 461, 463 ;

and Revision of Dreyfus case, 476,

479, 480
Crawfurd, 0., C. M. G., 328, 332

DANCING, Zola and, 430

Dan tan, B., 170

Daubigny, 95

Daudet, Alphonse, 22, 23, 50, 59, 77,

321, 420, 434, 435

Ernest, 102

Death, Zola and, 195, 210, 211, 218,

392, 398, 504, 505, 541
"Decameron, the/' 253, 269
Defaut, Dr., 509
Degas, 91

Delegorgue, Judge, 451
Delthil, Camille, 128 et seq.
Denise, 402

DSroulede, Paul, 427, 479
Desart, Earl of, 298
Descaves, Lucien, 234, 235
Deschamps, Gastou, 414
Desmoulin, Fernand, 191, 454, 466,

468, 469, 471, 509, 515
Dhur, Jacques, 9 et seq,
Dickens, (?., 493
Dierx, M., 161
Dinners of the Hissed Authors, 144,

145, 209, 210, 368

INDEX

549

Dircks, W. H., 298

Docks Napoleon, Zola at the, 53, 54

Dode, General, 24

Dogs, Zola's, 123, 401, 475, 476, 507,

509

Donnersmarck, Henckel von, 185
Dourdan, 15, 230
" Downfall, The," see " La De*M.cle,"

under heading "Zola's Works"
Dream of Colonel Henry's death. 472,

473

Dre"olle, Ernest, 120
Dreyfus Affair, generally, 116, 419

et seq.f 428, 433, 440

Captain Alfred, 410, 412, 413,

417, 429, 431, 433, 436, 440, 444,
448, 458, 466, 480, 481, 484, 485
et seq., 513, 514, 522

Mme., 431

Mathieu, 431, 433, 436

Drouet, Mme., 404

Droz, Gustave, 87

Drumont, Edouard, 423, 461, 511

Dubufe, H., 95

Ducamp, Maxime, 146

Duclaux, M., 447

Du Lac, Father, 444

Dumas, Alexandre, the elder, 22, 85,

89, 306, 374, 376, 404, 410, 527
the younger, 50, 89, 112,

173, 174, 202, 204, 306, 404
Du Maurier, George, 297
Dupanloup, Bishop, 86, 307
Du Paty de Clam, Colonel, 433, 439,

440, 443, 458

Dupuy, M.. Prime Minister, 477, 484
Duranty, 67, 116, 147
Duret, Theodore. 91, 477, 515
Dusautoy, M., 120
Duvernois, Camille, 120

EDWABDS, H. Sutherland, 247, 298

Eliot, George, 404

Ellis, Havelock, 298

Emerson, 404

Empire, the Second French, founda-
tion of, 34 ; law of public safety,
47; Quartler Latin during, 59;
opposition to, 75 ; tyranny and cor-
ruption of, 84, 85, 186; its wan-
ing prestige, 97 ; whether Zola
would, have sold himself to, 115
et seq. ; Journalists bribed by, 120 ;
fall of, 125, 126; court of, 151,
152r 186; its treatment of the
peasantry, 230 ; its " Robert Ma-
caires," 350; its characteristics
shown In the Rougon-Macquart
series, 351 et seq.

England, rural districts of, 279, 339 ;
Zola's first stay In, 329 et seq. ;
his second stay, 465 to 480

English Literature in 1840, 18

Erckmann-Chatriau, 87, 89, 112, 172

Esterhazy, see Walsin

Ewald, A. C., 298

Execution and sale at Zola's Paris
house, 474 et seq.

Experts, handwriting, in Dreyfus
case, 444, 448, 463, 475, 489

"Extracts from English Classics,"
Vizetelly's, 271 et seq.

FABRE, Ferdinand, 161, 172, 176

Fantin-Latour, 91

Fasquelle, Eugene, 305, 453, 476,

477, 480, 509, 515
" Fatalite"," play by Quenemeur, 12
Faure, President Felix, 438, 439, 443,

463, 479, 529
Faux, W., 298
Favre, Jules, 449
Fe"der, financier, 421
Ferry, Jules, 368, 415
Feuillet, Octave, 87, 112, 161, 172,

173, 190
Fe*val, Paul, 172
Fischer and wife, 10 et seq.
Flamidien, Brother, 500
Flassans, 30
Flaubert, Gustave, 22, 72, 98, 105,

111, 119, 121, 140, 141, 144 et

seq,, 152, 154, 161 et seq., 167, 174

et seq., 179, 190, 193, 194,286,367,

377,135,525
Fleury, Dr. M. de, 415
Forbes, Archibald, 298, 317
Fortifications, see Paris
Fortune, Zola's, 489, 490, 524
Foster, Birket, 247, 287, 298
France, Anatole, 143, 161, 447, 515,

518 et seq.

" France Juive, La," 422, 423
Franklin, Benjamin, 403
Frantz-Jourdain, 415, 526
Fratta, Signora, see Zola
French Literature in 1840, 20 et $eq. ;

in 1865, 85 et seq.; in 1876-78,

161

Freycinet, C. de, 309
Frith, W. P., R. A,, 29S
Fromentiu, 94 ^

Fulton, Sir F., 269
Funeral of Zola, 514 et seq.
Furniss, Harry, 298
Furnivall, Dr. F. J., 298 /

GABORIAU, Simile, 87, 103

Gallet, L., 304, 407

Galliffet, General-Marquis de, 48, 488

Marquis de, 25

Gambetta, Le*on, 127 et seq., 196 et

seq,, 215, 225, 368, 422, 450
Garnett, Dr. R., 298, 334
Gastineau, B., 177
Gaucher, M., 160
Gautier, Th(5ophile, 21, 89, 134, 135,

152, 185, 262
Geddes, Prof,, 298
General Staff, French, see Staff
Genoa, Zola at, 318
41 Germinie Lacerteux," 75, 109, 123
Ge>ame, 95, 185
Gerstner, Ritter von, 7, 8
Gilbert, Sir John, 287, 297
Girardln, Bmile de, 75, 83, 120, 144,

185

Giry, M., 447
Glsslng, George, 531
Glais-Bizoin, 119, 127, 128, 368
Gmuncien, 8
Goblet, Rene\ 226
Oomme, G. L., 298
Goncourt Academy, 320
Brothers, 75, 76, 79, 89, 90, 109

et seq., 119, 378

550

INDEX

Goncourt, Edmond de, 75, 111, 115 et
seq.,120, 121, 140, 141, 144 et seq.,
152 et seq.t 161, 167, 176, 185, 190,
194, 195, 201, 209 et seq., 216,219,
220, 224 et seq., 236, 237, 262,302,
320, 377, 378, 401, 435

Jules de, 75, 109, 111, 378

Gonse, General, 440, 444

Gosse, Edmund, 277, 298

Gounod, C., 48

Grandcamp, Zola at, 207, 218

Greenwood, Frederick, 247, 298

James, 247. 298

Gre*goire, AbbS, 420

Grenier, Edouard, 101

Greenville-Murray, E. C., 249

Gre>y, President, 225, 234

Grimaux, M., 447

Grosvenor Hotel, Zola at, 466, 467

Grousset, Paschal, 127

Guiches, Gustave, 234, 235

Guildhall, Zola at, 332 ; police court,
269

Guillemet, M., 91

Guimond, Esther, 185

Guyot, tfves, 183, 184, 447, 477, 491

HACHHTTE, Louis, 64, 69, 78; &

Co., 64 et seq., 77, 78
Haggard, H. Eider, 298
Hale*vy, Ludovic, 89, 185, 309, 515
Hamel, Ernest, 90

Hand, Zola's, and palmistry, 391,392
Handwriting experts, see Experts

Zola's, 373, 374

Hannay, James, 247
Hanotaux, M., 452
Hardy, Thomas, 19, 298, 531
Harris, Sir Augustus, 298

Frank, 288, 298, 340

Hatton, Joseph, 329

Haussmann, 58, 125, 352

Havet, M., 447

Havin, L., 124

Hubert, M., 411

Hennique, Le*on, 146, 160, 162, 191,

233
"Henriette Mare"chal," Goncourt's

play, 75, 76, 79, 128, 224
Henry, Major, later Colonel, 9, 433,

436, 451, 461, 463, 464, 473, 482
" Heptameron, The," 253, 286, 328
He*r6dia, J. M. de, 209
Heredity, in Zola's writings, 113, 123,

351, 353, 359, 363, 364
Hermant, Abel, 515, 517
Herz, pianist, 185
Hollingshead, J,, 247
Holloway Jail, 295, 298
Homes, Zola's, at Aix, 32, 33, 34, 36 ;

In Paris, 47, 54, 56, 61, 68, 69, 74,

96, 100, 132, 149, 150, 154, 168,

305, 474, 476, 505. See also

Me-dan

House of Commons, see Commons
Houssaye, Arsene, 87, 103, 104, 185
Hugo, Victor, 21, 22, 43, 85, 108, 116

et seq., 161, 196, 202, 216, 224 et

*eq.t 306, 373, 374, 395, 401, 404
• Charles, 117; Francois, 117;

George, 226 ; Le*opoldine, 118
Huysmans, J. K., 146, 162, 163, 191,

207, 377

IBSEN, Dr., 389

" Index Expurgatorlus Librorum Pro-
hibitorum," 3, 409, 410

Industry of Zola, 322, 395, 396

Influence of Zola's writings, 530 et
seq.

Ingram, Herbert, M. P., 246

Ingres, 216

Institute of Journalists and Zola, 323,
325 et seq.

Intellectuals, the, 447

Interviews, first, in European jour-
nalism, 82

Irving, Sir H., 287, 298

lung, General, 321

JACQUES, 402, 515
James, Hemry, 243
Janin, Jules, 21, 98, 374
Japan, 2, 3

Jaures, Jean, 447, 462, 477
Jay, Harriett, 298
Jeanniot, M,, 191, 317
Jerrold, Douglas, 246
Jesuits, the, 423

Jews in France, see Anti-Semitism
Jones, H. A., 298

Judet, E.f libels Zola's father, 9 et
seq., 461, 488, 489

KHAN, Edmund, 246
Kensit, 257, 258
Kiariaki, see Zola, Benedetta
Kibblewhite, E. J., 316

LABOBDB, M. and Mme., relatives of

Zola, 509, 515
Labori, Fernand, 432, 449 et seq.,

457 et seq.; 461, 465, 477, 484,

489, 491, 523
Labot, Mattre, 27. 47
Labouchere, H., M. P., 296
Lacroix, Albert, 71, 76, 89, 90, 104,

107, 114, 115, 116, 125, 132, 134,

136, 137
Laffitte, Jules, 187, 195

Pierre, 503

La Fontaine, 17, 18, 50, 51

Lalance, M., 522

Lamennals, 404

Lang, Andrew, 103, 243

Larat, Dr., 515

Laurier, C., 127 et seq.

Lawley, Hon. F., 298

Lawson, Sir Edward, 330, 332

Lazare, Bernard, 431, 466

Lebaudy pere, 421, 422

Leconte de Lisle, 86, 161

Le Fanu, G. B., 298

Legion of Honour and Zola, 173 et

seq., 238 et seq., 269, 323, 461,468,

513

Legouve*, E., 19
Lemaltre, Fre*de"rlck, 21, 350
Lemercier-Pieard, 451, 452
Lenorniand, Dr., 509
Leo XIII, Pope, 409, 410, 411, 410,

Leroux, Pierre, 404
Leroy-Beaulieu, A., 447
Lespes, L, (T. Trimm), 82
L'Estaque, Zola at, 166
Levasseur, E., 48

INDEX

551

Lever, C., 19

Levy, J. H., 477

L6vy, Michel, 73, 88

Llbrairie Internationale, 76, 89, 90,

Nouvelle, 88, 89

Library, sale of Zola's, 524, 525

Lickfold, Mr., 269, 294

Lincoln's Inn Hall, Zola^at, 330

Linton, Mrs. Lynn, 298

Liszt, 404

Literature, see American, English,
French

Littre4, E.,,66, 86, 307, 503

Lockroy, Edouard, 118, 238 et sea.

Loiseau, M., 515

Loisy, Abb6, 411

London, Zola in, 329 et seg.,465,466 ;
Zola on poverty in, 335

Longfellow, 20, 247

Loti, P., 310

Loubet, President, 479, 486

Louis-Philippe, King, 8, 11, 20, 34

Lourdes, Zola at, 311, 318. For his
novel " Lourdes " see Zola, Writ-
ings

Love, Zola, Flaubert, Goncourt, Tour-
geneffi and, 167

Lowell, J. R., 20

Lucas, Charles, 114 ; Dr. P., 114

Lucy, H. W., 298

Lyons, Lord, 127, 128

riots at, 446

Lytton, Lord ("Owen Meredith*'),
298

MACAULAY, 19
MacColl, Canon, 339
Maccoll, Norman, 298
MacMahon, Marshal, 156, 177
" Madame Bovary," see Bovary
Magnard, P., 329

"Maiden Tribute of Modern Baby-
lon," Stead's, 25C, 258, 272
Main, Dr., 509
Macaire and Makalre, 350
Mallarm6, S., 161
Malot, Hector, 161, 172
Manet, Edouard, 91, 93, 95, 101, 116,

179 303
Manifesto of the Five ("La Terre"),

234 et seq.
Margueritte, Paul, 234, 235, 378;

Victor, 235, 378

Marriage vow, violations of the, 401
Marryat, Captain, 19
Marseilles, F. Zola at, 13 et seq., 27 ;

12. Zola at, 52 ; canal to, 25 ; riots

at, 446

Marshall, F. A., 298
Martineau, H., 19
Marx. Adrien, 82, 173
Marzials, F. T., 298
Masse*na, 428

Massin, Leontine, as Nana, 203
Mathieu, Zola's dog, 123
Matrimony in France, 354, 355, 495,

536
Matthews, H., Home Secretary, 265 et

seq., 296, 298
Maupassant, Guy de, 63, 141, 162,

163, 167, 191, 192, 194, 262, 286,

343, 377

Mayhew, A. and X, 247, 298
Medal struck in Zola's honour, 490
MSdan, Zola's house at, 168, 179, 180,

187, 207, 209, 210, 217, 218, 233,

239, 305, 392, 401, 410, 484, 504,

505, 509

Melbourne, Lord, 403
Meley, Alexandrine Gabrielle, see

Zola, Mme. Emile
Meline, M., 445, 462
Memorial for H. Vizetelly's release,

297, 298

Memory, Zola's, 394
Mendes, Catulle, 134, 146, 158, 321
Menken, Adah I., 404
Mentality, Zola's, 394, 395, 432, 533,

534

Mercier, General, 440, 443
Meredith, George, 19

«* Owen," 298

MSrime-e, Prosper, 22, 249, 377, 404
Mermaid Series of the Old Drama-
tists, 253, 263

Metternich, Prince Richard, 89
Meurice, Paul, and wife, 116, 117,

118, 367
Meyer, M., 447
Michel de Bourges, 404
Michelet, 21, 66, 86, 89, 367, 374
Michon, Abbe*, 90
Mignet, 26, 31
Militarism in France, 438, 441, 442,

452

Mill, J. S., 19
Millais, Sir J. E., 298
Millet, 94

Mirbeau, Octave, 389, 477, 515
Miribel, General de, 444
Mistral, the, 26, 39
Moliere, 17, 18
Molloy, Fitzgerald, 298
Monet, Claude, 91, 93
Monod, Gabriel, 447, 522
Montmartre cemetery, Zola buried in,

514, 516, et seq.

Monument, projected, to Zola, 524
Moore, George, 178, 179. 182, 249,

250, 254, 258, 287, 288, 297, 298,

334, 340, 477, 530
Moral law, the, and great men, 402

et seq.

Mor&s, Marquis de, 427
Morley, Prof. H., 298
Morny, Duke de, 153
Mim, Count A. de, 445
Munster, Count, later Prince von, 452
Murger, Henri, 59, 60, 262
Murray, D. Christie, 448
Musset, Alfred de, 21, 43, 44, 85,

404, 451
Paul de, 85, 89

NADAB, M., 143, 144

Names taken by Zola in England,

466, 469, 470
Nantes, riots at, 446
Napoleon III., 20, 34, 47, 75, 86, 97,

117, 118, 125, 152, 186, 350, 351,

357, 362

Jgro-me, Prince, 186

National Defence Delegation, French,

in 1870, 127
Gallery, Zola at the, 334, 335

552

INDEX

Nationalists, French, 424 et seq.f

452, 457, 462
National Vigilance Association, 257

et seq., 263, 269, 282, 285, 287, 288
Naturalism in fiction, 159, 164, 174,

183, 184, 190, 192, 195, 203, 204,

395, 407, 530, 531
Nazon, M., 95
Nelson, 403
Newgate prison, 294
Nicholson, Brinsley, 298
Nieuwerkerke, Count A. E. de, 75
Nigra, Count, 89
Ninon, Zola's, 45 ; for " Contea a

Ninon," see Zola, Writings
Nisard, Desire", 47, 402
Noel, Roden, 298
Normandy, drunkenness in, 537
Norris, Frank, 531
Norwood, Zola at, see Queen's Hotel
Novel, the six-shilling, 249, 250

OATLANDS PABE HOTEL, Zola at, 467,

470

Obesity, Zola cures himself of, 302
Obsequies, Zola's, 514 et seq.
Observation, Zola's powers of, 393
O'Connor, T. P., 298
Odelin, M., 423
Old Bailey, see Central Criminal

Court

Olivier, Captain, 515
Orderliness, Zola's, 395
" O'Rell, Max," 298
Orleans, Prince Henri d', 438
Orson, S. W., 298
" Ouida," 298

PAIVA, Yiscount A. de, 185

La, 185

Pamplin, A. W., 469

Panizzardi, Colonel, 437, 451, 452,
463

Paris, F. Zola's scheme for fortifying,
8, 14, 15,, 16, 24, 25 ; environs of,
60, 61 ; E. Zola at lectures in, 70 ;
corruption of, 84, 85, 186, 352,
354, 536; Commune of, 127, 128,
132 ; markets of, 142 et seq. ; some
restaurants of, 144, 145 ; middle
classes of, 207, 208, 354, 355;
working classes of, 154, 155, 157,
159, 358 ; Southerners and Jews
in, 420 et seq., 426; anti-Semitic
disturbances in, 446, 450, 453,459 ;
Zola's trial in 450 et seq., 521 ;
boycott of the Exhibition of 1900,
485; cohabitation without mar-
riage in, 536. Bee also Quartler
Latin

Parkinson, J. C, 247, 298

Parnassian poets, 86, 116, 129, 321

Pascal, Zola as Monsieur, 466

Passy, M., 447

Paternity and famous men, 400 et seq.

Pavia, 4

Pays, Mile., 437

Pearl, Cora, 186

Peasantry, French, 230,231, 361, 862,
381

Pellieux, General de, 436, 444, 451,
452, 453, 461

Pelloquet, T., 94

Pelletan, Eugene, 89, 119

Penn, Oatlands Chase, Zola at, 468,
470

Pentonville prison, 295

Percin, General, 513

Periodical Publications (newspapers,
reviews, etc.) referred to or
quoted

American:

"New York Herald" (London
edition), 258, 288
" Tribune," 341

Austrian:

" Neue Freie Presse," 8

British:

" Athenaeum," 42, 262, 381
"Birmingham Daily Mail," 263,
267

" Blackwood's Magazine," 243,
261

" Bradford Observer," 268
" Country Gentleman," 268
" Daily Chronicle," 288, 340
" English Illustrated Magazine,"
178, 182

" Fortnightly Review," 288
" Globe," 267, 287
" Guardian," 267
"Illustrated London News," 246,
247

" Illustrated Times," 247
" Liverpool Mercury," 287
" M. A. P.," 466
" Methodist Times," 287
" Morning Advertiser," 287
'* National Observer," 337
" Newcastle Chronicle," 268
" New Review," 323
"Notts Daily Express," 263
"Pall Mall Gazette," 248, 250,
256, 263, 330

" Magazine," 466

" People," 221

" Piccadilly," 268

"Pictorial Times," 246

" Reynolds's Newspaper," 505

" St. James's Gazette," 287, 377

" Saturday Review," 250, 287

" Scotsman," 265, 268

" Scottish Leader," 268

" Speaker," 338, 340

" Standard," 268

" Star," 287, 477

" Tablet," 267

" Times," 287, 452

" Truth," 257

"Weekly Dispatch," 267

" Times and Echo," 316

" Welcome Guest," 247
"Western Daily Press," 268

« Morning News," 287

" Westminster Gazette," 432, 481
"Whitehall Review," 267, 287
"Wimbledon Annual," 466

French:1

" L'Anti-«Tuif," 425

" L'Artiste," * 103, 121

1 Zola contributed to those journals which are marked with an asterisk.

INDEX

553

Periodical Publications — continued
French;

"L'Aurore,"* 434, 439, 445,
447, 448, 480, 481, 487, 501

"La Bibliothfcque Universelle,"
171

" La Cloche," * 131, 132, 133, 134

"La Croix," 512

" La Grande Revue," * 69, 100,
477

" La Lanterne," 117, 118

" La Liberte*," 83

"La Libre Parole," 410, 423,
425, 511

" La Marseillaise," * Zola's, 126,
127

" La Nouvelle Revue," 189

"La Patrie," 511

" La Petite Rgpublique," 445

" La Re"publique des Lettres," *
134, 158, 160

" La Re"publique Frangaise," 198

" La Revue bleue, 63, 160

" La Revue des Deux Mondes," 160

" La Revue hebdomadaire," * 319

" La Revue illustre"e," * 301, 304

" La Situation," * 101

" La Tribune," * 110, 113, 119,
123, 127, 128

" La Vie Parisienne," * 74

" La Vie populaire," * 304, 315

"La Vraie Parole," 425

" Le Bien Public," * 156 et seq.f
164, 170, 171, 184

" Le/ Corsaire," * 101, 131

"L'Eclair," 444

"L'Echo de Paris," 444

"L'Epoque," 120

" L'Etendard," 120

" L'Eve*nement," * 81 et seq., 91
et seq., 97, 98, 118, 151, 152 ; an-
other, 107

"Le Figaro," * 63,69, 80 et seq.,
98, 100, 103, 105, 118, 149, 152,
170, 171, 195, 226, 234, 315, 317,
414, 416, 429, 432, 433

"Le Gaulois,"* 118, 123, 208,
511, 513

"Le Gil-Bias."* 195, 213, 218,
221, 229, 234, 310

" L'lllustration," * 99, 121

" Le Journal," * 414, 429, 460

" Le Messagcr de Provence," *
101, 102, 126

"Le Petit Journal,"* 74, 82,
423, 450, 461

" Le Peuple BYanfiais," 120 ; an-
other, 512

" Le Public," 120

" Le Rappel," * 117, 118, 121

"Le Salut Public"* (Lyons),
74, 118

"Le Semaphore" * (Marseilles),
131, 134, 153, 157

" Le Siecle," * 124, 125, 132, 147,

156, 445, 477, 491

" Le Temps," 135
" Le Voltaire," * 159, 171, 179,
187, 188, 195, 204
Russian:

" Viestnife Yevropt," * 150, 153,

157, 164, 171, 195, 204
Perlinpinpln, see Pinpin

Perowne, see Worcester, Bishop of

Perraud, Cardinal, 307

Perrenx, M., 447, 458, 464, 465

Perrier, B., 415

Person, Zola's, 390

Petilleau, G., 326, 327, 335

Petit, Helene, 178

Petrapoli, Antonio, 5

Philips, F. C., 298

Phillips, Alderman, 209

Photographs by Zola, 469

Picquart, Colonel, 417, 431, 437, 438,

440, 443, 451, 462, 464, 474, 483,

487, 491, 523
Pinero, A. W., 298
Pinpin, Zola's dog, 475, 476
Pipe-en-bois (G. Cavalie*), 127
Piriac, Zola at, 156
Pissarro, M., 91, 95, 100
Plagiarism, charges against Zola of,

143, 170, 171, 221, 222, 414 et seq.
Plassans suggested by Flassans, 30,

115 ; see also Aix
Poe's Tales, 20, 246
Pollonnais, G., 513
Ponsard, 86, 112, 185
Ponson du Terrail, 87, 103
Pontbriand, M. de, 445
Pont-de-Beraud, Zola at, 33
Positivism and Zola, 502, 503
Post-mortem examination of Zola's

remains, 510
Poulot, Denis, 171
Powell, Sir F. S., 265
Pressense*, F. de, 447
PrSvost-Paradol, 66, 86, 98, 112
Prison Commissioners and H, Vize-

telly, 295

Protestants. French, 214, 503
Proudhon, 90
Provence, Zola in, 23, 25 et seq. ;

scenery of, 40 et seq.
Pseudonyms-, Zola's newspaper, 94,

98, 102
Pushfulness, Zola's belief in, 165

QUABTIEB LATIN, 48, 51, 54 et seq.,

59 et seq., 100
Queen's Hotel, Norwood, Zola at, 470,

477, 480

Qu&nemeur, E,, 12
Quiller-Couch, A. T., 338, 340
Quinet, B., 89

RABELAIS, 253, 308

Raffaelli, M., 302

Ralston, W. R. S., 298

Ranc, A., 447, 453

"Rat, Le," Zola's projected novel,

430

Ravary, Major, 444
Iteade, Charles, 178, 494
Reichstag, the German, declaration

about Dreyfus in, 448
Reinach, Joseph, 429, 447, 462, 487
Religion, Zola's views on, 502, 503
Renan, B., 140, 177, 307, 533
Rennes court-martial on Dreyfus, 484
Renoir, M., 91
Republic, French, and Jews, 420 et

seq. ; and the Roman Church, 424,

427, 428, 436, 445, 446, 487, 499,

503, 532

554

INDEX

Re*ville, M., 447

Re*villon, Tony, 158

Rhys, B., 298

Ricard, Mgr. 409

X. de, 116

Rlchepin, J., 162

Robert Macaire and Rougon-Macquart,
350

Robertson, Tom, 247

Rochefort, Henri, 48, 117, 118, 120,
439,,450, 511

Rod, Edouard, 160

Rodays, F. de, 432, 433

Roman Catholic Church, the, canon-
izes G. B. Zola, 3 ; difficulties of
Abbe" Giuseppe Zola with, 3, 4 ;
in relation to France, 408,409,416,
421 et seq., 436, 445, 446, 487, 499,
503, 532, 538

Rome, Zola's visit to, 410 et seq.;
see also Zola, Writings

Rosny, J. H., 234, 235

Rouen, Zola at, 193, 194

Rougon-Macquart and Robert Ma-
caire, 350

Rousseau, Theodore, 94

Roux, Marlus, 33, 70, 97, 106, 126,
146, 147,

Rovigo, Duke de, 10, 11

Russell, T. W., M. P., 265

W. Clark, 298

SAINT AEROMAN, R. de, 501

Aubin, Zola at, 154, 218

Joseph, Zola's birthplace, 16, 17,

18
Louis, LycSe, Zola at, 47 et seq, ;

famous pupils of, 48

Pierre, Bernardin de, 56

Sainte-Beuve, 21, 105, 106

Sala, G. A., 178, 247, 298

Sambourne, L., 298

Sand, George, 22, 85, 161, 190, 249,

374, 389, 404 ; Maurice, 146
Sandeau, J., 404
Sandherr, Colonel, 433
" Sapho," Daudet's novel, 217
Sarcey, Francisque, 16, 135, 141,160,

233, 236

Sardou, V., 84, 112
Saussier, General, 436
Savoy Hotel, Zola at, 330, 335
SchSrer, E., 214
Scheurer-Kestner, M., 431, 433, 434,

442
Schneider, Colonel, 437

Hortense, 186

Scholl, Aur<51ien, 329
Schreiner, Olive, 298
Schveninger cure for obesity, 302
Schwarzkoppen, Colonel von, 433,

437, 451, 452, 463
Science, Zola's belief In, 503, 533
Scott, Sir W., 190
Sensitiveness, Zola's physical, 392,

393

Senior, W., 298
Shark, Zola called the, 308
Sharp, William, 298
Sherard, R. H., 77, 188, 207, 208,

213, 220, 232, 319
Simon, Jules, 90, 129
Singer, Dr. I., 425

Six-shilling novel, the, 249, 250
Smith, Samuel, M. P., 262 et seq.
Socialism, Zola and, 494
Socie"te" des Gens de Lettres and Zola,

323, 326, 329, 394
" Soil, the," translation of La Terre,

publication of and proceedings

against, 254, 261, 268, 269, 270,

277

Soissons, Count C. S. de, 98
Solari, M., sculptor, 33, 69, 100
SouliS, F., 22
SouJt, Marshal, 11, 24, 428
Southey, R., 19

Spalding, Percy, 316, 477 ; Mrs., 467
Spencer, Herbert, 179
Spontaneous combustion, death by,

383

Spottiswoode, A., 246
Staff, French General, 433, 441, 442,

444, 451, 459, 462
Stage, the, Zola and, 388
Stead, W. T., 256 et seq., 286
Stendhal, 22
Stephen, Sir Leslie, 298
Stephenson, Sir A. K., 271
Storey, S., M. P., 298
Story, G. W., 341
Strachey, J. St. Loe, 298
Strickland, Agnes, 19
Students, Zola's address to the Paris,

323

" Sublime, Le," Poulot's, 171
Sue, Eugene, 22, 155
Sully-Prudhomme, 116
Summerfield, Addlestone, Zola at, 469,

470

Superstitions, Zola's, 392, 400, 503, 504
Survival of Zola's memory, 529
Swinburne, A. C., 196
Symonds, J. A., 19, 298
Symons, Arthur, 298
Syndicate, alleged Jewish, 445, 454
Sylvacanne, Impasse, at Alx, Zola at, 32

TABAR, L., 91, 92

Taglioni, La, 80

Taine, H., 68, 74, 87, 98, 100, 146,

308, 395

Talmeyre, M., 222
Tanera, Captain, 317
** Tartarin of Tarascon," Daudet's, 88
Thackeray, 19, 216, 246, 283
Theatres, chiefly those at which Zola's
plays, libretti, or adaptations of his
novels were performed : —

Ambigu (Paris), 159, 177, 201
et seq.t 219

(Marseilles), 106, 107

Chatelet, 227, 303

Cluny, 148, 149

Com^die Franchise, 75, 88, 135,
215, 225, 389

Gymnase, 99, 148

Ode*on, 74, 88, 233, 389

Ope>a Comique, 304, 407, 498

Grand, 430

Palais Royal, 148, 168, 169

Renaissance, 141, 142

Theatre Francjais, see Come*die

Libre, 233, 301, 302

de Paris, 233

Vaudeville, 99

INDEX

555

Theuriet, A., 161

The"venot, E., 170

Thiboust, Lambert, 202

Thiers, A., 24, 26, 31, 32, 34, 131, 156

Thomson, W. M., 269, 286

Tolstoi, Count, 252, 323, 389, 519

Tornielli, Count, 452

Torse, river, 33

Toudouze, M., 146

Toulouse, Dr., on Zola, 390 et seq.

Tourgeneff, 141, 144, 145, 146, 147,

150, 154, 209

Toussenel on the Jews, 420, 422
Tragedy in Zola's life, 527, 528
Traill, Dr. H. D., 298
Translations of English novels In

Prance, 283 : of Zola's novels into

English, 244-299, 323, 385 et seq.,

414, 542 et seq.
Trarieux, Senator, 447
Trials of Zola (Dreyfus case), see

Paris and Versailles
Truro, Bishop of, 337
Turner's paintings and Zola, 335

F., 214, 243

ULBACH, L., 104, 105, 131, 132, 133, 172
Umberto, King of Italy, 411
" Uncle Tom's Cabin," 246
Union Gen6rale Bank, 196, 421

VACQUERIE, Auguste, 117

Charles, 118

Valabregue, A., 38, 70 et seq., 73, 76,

78, 99, 101, 108, 164
Valenciennes, Zola at, 220
Valles, Jules, 210
Vandam, Albert, 221, 229
Vaughan, Ernest, 439

Mr., magistrate, 286

Venables, E. G., 4G8 ,

Venice, Zolas of, 2, 5, 6 ; E. Zola at,

412, 455 ; Vizetellys from, 244
Verne, Jules, 161
Veron, Dr., 82
Versailles, Zola at, 131, 132; bis

trials at, 461. 463, 464, 465
Vigny, A, de, 2i

Vigilance Association, see National
Villars, Nina de, 368
Villemessant, H. de, 69, 80 et seq.,

88, 92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 117, 120
Vitu, Auguste, 120
VIzetelly & Co., 243 et seq., 284

Arthur, 248, 256, 299

Edward Henry, 248

Ernest Alfred, 173, 174, 248,

250 et seq., 278, 284, 285, 289 et
seq., 295, 313 et seq., 324 et seq.,
334, 335, 337, 338, 410, 413, 414,
429, 445, 460, 466, 467, 469, 470,
472 to 479, 484 et seq., 497, 502,
505, 515, 542 et seq. ; Marie, wife
of, 253, 313, 314, 466, 468 ; Victor
Rene", son of, 474 ; Vlolette, daugh-
ter of, 468, 469, 472, 473

• family, 244 et seq.

Frank Horace, 248, 290, 295

. Henry Richard, 90, 243 et seq.,

252, 255, 256, 263, 268 et seq., 284

et seq., 301, 329, 340

James Henry, 245, 246

— James Thomas George, 246

WALDECK-ROUSSEAU, M., 484, 487,

488, 512, 525
Walsin-Esterhazy, Major, 417, 431,

433, 435 et seq., 439 et seq., 448,

454, 464, 474
War of 1870, Zola during the, 125 et

seq.

Wareham, F. W., 466 et seq., 478
Watkin, Sir E. W., 298
Webster, Daniel, 403
Welldon, Rev. J. E. C., 337, 338
Wellington, Duke of, 403
Westminster Abbey, Zola at, 335
Wharton, H. T., 298
Williams, F. B., Q. C., 275, 280, 281,

282

Williamson, C. N., 298
Willis, N. P., 20
Wilson, Daniel, 234

H. J., M. P., 267

Wingfield, Hon. L., 298
" Winter, John Strange," 298
Wimbledon, Zola at, 466, 467
Wolf, Lucien, 336, 477
Wolff, Albert, 236
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 405
Worcester, Bishop of, 336, 337, 338
Wybouroffi, M., 503

XAU, Fernand, 235, 237, 329, 414=

YATES, EJdmund, 247, 296, 297, 298
Young, J. Carleton, 525

ZOLA, Alexandrine , Gabrielle, nee
Mesley, wife of Emile, 100, 121,
122, 123, 125, 126, 128, 134, 135,
150, 154, 180, 202, 210, 212, 219,
240, 302, 311, 329, 332, 375, 401,
402, 412, 413, 454, 465, 469, 470,
475, 477, 478, 505 et seq., 514, 522,
523

Benedetta, ne'e Kiariaki, 5, 6

Canal, see Aix

Carlo, judge, 5, 6, 412

di,Modigliana, 2

ZOLA, Emile Edouard Charles An-
toine, his birth and destiny, 18 ;
contrasted with A, Daudet, 22 ;
taken from Paris to Aix, 24, 25;
at his father's funeral, 27 ; his
childhood, 30 et seq. ; his animus
against Aix, 30 ; his first school
and friends, 33 ; studies at Aix
college, 34 et seq. ; his first literary
attempts, 36 ; his college friends
and their pranks, 39 ; plays the
clarionet, 40 ; roams the country
round Aix, 40 et seq. ; his taste
for poetry and his early verses, 43
et seq., 51 ; awakes to love, 44, 45 ;
returns to Paris, 46, 47 ; studies at
Lyce"e St. Louis, 47 et seq. ; his
first " Conte 3, Ninon," 49 ; his
holidays at Aix, 49, 51; ill with
fever, 49 ; fails to secure a degree,
49, 50, 52 ; Is employed at the
Docks Napoleon, 53 ; is stranded
in the Quartier Latin, 54 et seq. ;
his " Amoureuse Come"die," 56 ;
his bitter poverty, 57 ; plans a
poetic trilogy " Genesis," 57, 58 ;
his Quartier Latin, life and love

556

INDEX

affair, 60 et sea. ; his " Confession
de Claude," 60, 61, 68, 70, 73, 76
et seq.' his rambles round Paris,
61 et seq. ; plays the " Arab," 63 ;
pawns his coat, 64 ; can get no
work, 64 ; employed at Hachette's
house, 64 et seq.; becomes ac-
quainted with Hachette's authors,
66 ; chats with Taine, 67 ; writes
various tales, 68 ; his verse and
prose rejected by Hachette, 69 ;
takes his mother to live with him,
69 ; his " band," 70 ; reports
various lectures, 70; sells his
" Contes a Ninon," 70, 71 ; abandons
verse for prose, 71 ; impressed by
" Madame Bovary," 72 ; duality of
his nature, 73 ; early contributions
to journalism, 74 ; writes " La
Laide," a comedy, 74 ; his articles,
" Mes Haines," 74, 96, 101 ; his
intercourse with the Goncourts be-
gins, 74, 109 et seq. ; his impres-
sions of "Henrlette Marshal," 75;
is attacked by Barbey d'Aure"villy,
77; quits Hachette, 77, 78; will
not be crushed by fools, 78 ; serves
under Villemessant, 82, 83; his
" Books of To-day and To-mor-
row," 83 et seq. ; visits Llttrfi and
Michelet, 86 ; meets A. Daudet, 88 ;
attacks Abbe" Michon, 90; visits
Librairie Internationale, 90, 91;
meets artists and art critics, 91 ;
criticises the Salon and cham-

glons Manet, 92 et seq. ; stays at
ennecourt, 96, 97; writes " Le
Voeu d'une Morte," 97 ; his " Mar-
bres/et Piatres," 98; passes from
" L'Evenement " to "Le Figaro,"
98 ; his drama " La Madeleine," 99,
107, 301, 302; writes a definition
of the novel, 99, 100 ; poor and in
love, 100 ; attempts a Salon for
"La Situation," 101; his " Mys-
teres de Marseille," 101, 102, 106,
107 ; his " Therese Raquin," 102
et seq. ; projects a book on Balzac,
108 ; writes for " La Tribune," 110,
113, 119, 123, 127, 128; origin of
his Rougon-Macquart series, 110
et seq. ; arranges for its publica-
tion, 114 ; begins " La Fortune des
Rougon," 115, 123 ; Goncourt's al-
legation of his venality, 116 et
seq. ; frequents the Meurfces' salon,
116 ; meets Sully-Prudhomme and
F. Copp£e, 116 ; contributes to
" Le Rappel," 117, 118 ; his Repub-
licanism, 118 ; falsity of Goncourt's
charge, 119 et seq. ; introduced to
Flaubert, 121 ; marries Mile. Mes-
ley, 121 ; his home Rue de La
Condamine, 122, 123; his difficul-
ties with "Le Slecle," 124, 125;
begins " La Cure"e," 125 ; goes to
southern France, 125 ; is exempt
from military service, 126 ; runs a
war newspaper at Marseilles, 126 ;
appointed secretary to Glais-Bizoin,
127; almost becomes a sub-prefect,
128, 129 ; his view of politics, 130 ;
contributes to "Le Semaphore,"

"La Cloche," and "Le Corsaire,"
131; writes "La Cure"e,"132, 133,
134 ; his1 publisher failing, is reduced
to dire poverty, 134 ; recommended
by T. Gautier to G. Charpentier, 134,
135 ; sells the Rougon-Macquarts
to Charpentier, 136 et seq. ; is gen-
erously treated by him, 138, 139 ;
becomes intimate with Flaubert,
Tourgeneff, Daudet, and Goncourt,
140 et seq. ; suffers from various
ailments, 141, 153, 154, 195, 210,
212, 213, 218, 221, 302, 392, 393,
474, 475, 510; his play " The^ese
Raquin," 141, 142 ; his " Ventre de
Paris," 142, 143 ; joins the Dinner
of the Hissed Authors, 144, 145;
becomes partial to good fare, 145 ;
attacks Chateaubriand, 146 ; does
not smoke, 146 ; a poor conversa-
tionalist, 147; his weekly dinners,
147 ; publishes " La Conquete de
Plassans," 147, 148 ; his comedy
" Les He"ritiers Rabourdin," 148,
149 ; his home in the Rue St.
Georges, 149, 150 ; contributes to
the " Vlestnik Yevropi," 150 ; writes
his "Faute de 1'Abbe* Mouret,"150,
151 ; issues " Nouveaux Contes a
Ninon," 151, 152 ; writes " Son
Excellence Eugene Rougon," 151 et
seq. ; is eager to put everything in
his books, 153 ; sees mice, 154 ; plans
" L'Assommoir " at St. Aubin, 154
et seq. ; becomes dramatic critic to
"Le Bien Public," 156, 157; hia
income in 1876, 157; his difficul-
ties with L'Assommoir, 157, 158;
transfers it to " La Re"publique des
Lettres," 158; controversy re-
specting his work and ideas, 159
et seq. ; his adherents, 162, 163 ;
is accused of self-advertisement by
Flaubert, 163 ; his answer, 164 ;
his belief in pushfulness, 165 ;
writes " Une Page d' Amour," 166
et seq. ; buys a house at Me"dan
(q. v.), 168 ; his farce " Le Bouton
de Rose," 168 et seq. ; again
charged with plagiarism, 170 ; at-
tacks contemporary novelists, 171
et seq. ; his pamphlet on Naturalism
and the Republic, 174 ; is promised
the cross of the Legion of Honour,
174 et seq. ; his novel " L'Assom-
moir " dramatised, 177, 178 ; his rise
to affluence, 179 ; his extensions at
Me"dan, 180 ; his collections, 180,
181 ; his studies, 182 ; develop-
ment of his reforming instinct, 182
et seq., 200 ; writes " Nana," 185
et seq. ; some of his short stories,
190, 191 ; contributes to " Les
SoirSes de Me*dan," 191 ; disclaims
the foundation of a school, 193 ;
deeply affected by Flaubert's death,
194 ; and by that of his mother,
194, 195, 210 ; his hypochondriacal
tendency, 195, 210 et seq. ; quits
" Le Voltaire " for " Le Figaro,"
£95 ; attacks Hugo's "L'Ane," 196 ;
assails Gambetta and defends
" L'Assommoir," 196 et seq. ; his

INDEX

557

real nature manifest In his news-
paper articles, 200 ; assists Bus-
nach to dramatise " Nana," 201 ;
defends the play, 202; reissues in
book form many critical and bio-
graphical papers, 203, 204 ; stren-
uousness of his life, 205 ; begins
" La Joie de Vivre," 206 ; enlarges
the Rougon-Macquart series, 207 ;
writes " Pot-Bouille," 20T ; deems
it his clearest book, 208 ; hears
Goncourt read " La Paustin," 209 ;
his expenditure at Me"dan, 209 ;
tale of his first franc, 209 ; fears
a sudden and violent death, 210 ;
gives a diner fin, 211 ; writes " Au
Bonheur des Dames," 212 ; falls
seriously ill, 213 ; publishes " Le
Capitaine Burle" and other tales,
213 ; finishes " Au Bonheur des
Dames," 214 ; declining sale of his
books, 215 ; still stage-struck, 216 ;
advises Daudet to stand as candidate
for the Academy, 216 ; is cheered
by Daudet's companionship, 217,
218 ; finishes " La Joie de Vivre,"
218 ; helps to dramatise " Pot-
Bouille," 219 ; projects his novel
" La Terre," 219 ; turns to " Germ-
inal," 220 ; recovers physical and
mental strength, 221 ; again ac-
cused of plagiarism, 221, 222 ; be-
gins " L'CEuvre," 224 ; his view
of some young authors, 224 ; is
stirred by V. Hugo's death, 225 ;
his telegram to George flugo, 226 ;
resents the interdiction of T' Germi-
nal " as a play, 226 ; writes a
prefatory note to " Germinal," 227 ;
publishes " L'CEuvre," 228, 229 ;
begins " La Terre," 229 ; its pur-
port, 231, 232 ; goes on a tour of
investigation, 232 ; dramatises " Le
Ventre de Paris " and " La Cure*e,"
233 ; Issues " La Terre " in the
"Gil-Bias," 234; treats the Mani-
festo of the Five with contempt,
234 to 237 ; becomes a knight of
the Legion of Honour, 238 et seq. ;
resolves to stand for the Academy
and, perhaps, the Senate, 240 ; his
works translated in England, 242
et seq. ; his view of the failure of
Christianity, 258, 259; attacked
by " Blackwood's Magazine," 261 ;
his writings denounced in the
House of Commons, 263 et seq. ;
and by the British press, 267, 268 ;
proceedings against the English
translations of his works, 268 et
seq. ; H. Vizetelly's protest in his
favour, 271 et seq, ; his view of
Vizetelly's first trial, 283 ; he pro-
duces " Le RSve," 300, 304 ; he
cures himself of obesity, 302 ; his
novel " Germinal " as a play, 303 ;
he writes "La Bete Humaine,"304,
305 ; tries to enter the Academy,
306 et seq. ; writes " L' Argent," 310 ;
and " La Debacle," 311 et seq. ;
his first visit to Lourdes, 311 ; his
regular intercourse with Ernest
Vizetelly begins, 314 ; reception of

his novel "La Debacle," 317; he
returns to Lourdes and visits
Genoa, 318 ; he writes " Le Doc-
teur Pascal," 319 ; is entertained
on completion of the Rougon-Mac-
quart novels, 320 ; extent of his
writings, 322 ; becomes an officer
of the Legion of Honour and presi-
dent of the Socie"te* des Gens de
Lettres, 323 ; is asked to London
by the Institute of Journalists,
323 et seq. ; his stay there, 329 et
seq. ; his address on anonymity in
journalism, 330 ; at dinner with
the Authors' Club, 332 ; sees some
London sights, 334 et seq. ; again
attacked by English Pharisees, 336
et scq. ; his work to 1893 surveyed,
342 et seq. ; his love of animals
(q. v.)> 365; panoramic character
of his writings, 365 ; his researches
and experience of life, 366 ; prepa-
ration of his novels, 369 et seq. ;
his handwriting, 373 et seq. ; his
MSS. and proofs, 375, 376 ; some
of his errors, 376 ; heaviness of
some of his books, 377 ; his view
of literary " fireworks," 378 ; some
of his good " bits," 378, 379 ; some
of his volumes criticised, 379 et
seq. ; his private slang lexicon, 380 ;
his connection with the stage, 388 ;
his view of Ibsen and Tolstoi, 389 ;
his personal appearance, 390 ; his
hand and palmistry, 391, 392 ; his
superstitions and nervosite1, 392,
393, 504 ; his powers of observa-
tion, 393, 394 ; his systematic
memory and mind, 394, 395, 432;
he forces himself to work, 395,
396 ; his abstemious habits, 396,
397; routine of his life, 397; his
" confession," 398 ; the craving of
his life, 398 et seq. ; his childless
home, 400, 401; his illegitimate
children, 402 ; perturbation in his
life, 405, 406; his " Attaque du
Moulin " as an opera, 407 ; his
series " Les Trois Villes," 407 et
seq. ; his " Lourdes," 408, 409 ; his
" Rome," 410 et seq. ; he does not
ask the Pope for an audience, 411 ;
he is received by King Umberto,
411; visits his Italian relatives,
412 ; answers charges of plagiar-
ism in " Rome," 414 et seq. ; ac-
knowledges help in writing his
books, 415 ; his " Nouvelle Cam-
pagne," 416 ; his view of spiritism,
417; begins to defend the Jews,
417, 429 ; writes *' Paris," and the
libretto of " Messidor," 429, 430;
projects a novel on ballet-girls,
430; turns to the Dreyfus case,
431 ; his first intervention, 432,
433 ; his pamphlet campaign, 434
et seq. ; is hissed at Daudet's fu-
neral, 434, 435 ; his indignation at
Esterhazy's acquittal, 438; his
letter " J'Accuse," 438 et seq. ;
is prosecuted for it, 445, 447 et
seq. ; his windows broken, 446 ;
writes to Gen. Billot, 447 ; is sued

558

INDEX

by the handwriting experts, 448,
463, 474, 475, 476; receives ex-
pressions and testimonials of sym-
pathy, 448 ; entrusts his defence to
M. Labori, 449 ; summons a hun-
dred witnesses, 450 ; his first trial
(Paris), 450 et seq.; his address
to the jury, 454 et seq. ; he is con-
victed and sentenced, 458, 459 ;
appeals, 460 ; publishes " Paris,"
460 ; his conviction quashed, 461 ;
his second trial (Versailles), 461;
he answers Judet's attack on his
father, 462 ; issues a letter to M.
Brisson, 463 ; his third trial (Ver-
sailles), 464, 465; withdraws to
England, 465 ; entrusts himself to
Ernest Vizetelly, 466 et seq. ; sen-
sation created by his disappear-
ance, 467 ; his homes in England,
467 et seq. ; is suspended from the
Legion of Honour, 468; begins
" Fecondite"," 468 ; his life in Eng-
land, 468 et seq. ; names he as-
sumed there, 469, 470 ; some of his
notes to Vizetelly, 470, 471, 472;
studies English, 472; receives a
strange telegram, 473 ; is impressed
by Violette Vizetelly' s dream, 473 ;
his hope of returning to Prance
unfulfilled, 473, 474 ; falls ill, 474,
475; his grief for his dog, 475,
476 ; execution and sale at his
Paris home, 474, 475, 476; re-
moves to Queen's Hotel, Norwood,
477; is visited by friends, 477;
writes " Angeline," 477 ; some
more of his notes to Vizetelly, 478,
479 ; his nervous state, 479 ; learns
that Dreyfus is to be retried, 480 ;
returns to France, 480: issues a
manifesto, 481 et seq. ; remains at
Me*dan during the Bennes court-
martial, 484, 485; is horrified by
the verdict, 485 ; issues " Le Cin-
quieme Acte," 485 ; refuses to
write on the case for foreign jour-
nals, 485, 486; addresses a letter
to Mme. Dreyfus, 486 ; publishes
** Fe"conditey 486 ; protests against
the Amnesty, 487 et seq. ; re-
nounces proceedings against Judet
and the experts, 488, 489 ; his sac-
rifices for the cause of Dreyfus,
489, 490 ; accepts a medal struck
in his honour, 490 et scq. ; turns
from destructive to constructive
writing, 493; his evolution towards
Socialism, 494 ; remarks on his
" FeconditeV' 495; his "Travail,"
496 et seq. ; his libretto for
" L'Ouragan," 499 ; he begins
" VeriteV' 499 ; his difficulties with
that work, 500 et seq. ; his disin-
terestedness, 501 ; his religious
views, 502, 503 ; he rids himself of
fads, 504 ; last weeks of his life,
504, 505 ; his death, 505 et seq, ;
attempts to revive him, 509 ; ex-
amination of his remains, 509, 510 ;
tributes to and attacks on his
memory, 511, 512 ; his will, 513 ;
his obsequies, 513 et seq. ; orations

on his literary work, 516 et seq. ;
on his rdle in the Dreyfus case,
520 et seq. ; his " Ve'rite' " pub-
lished, 524 ; projected monument
in his honour, 524 ; his books sold,
524, 525 : translation of his re-
mains, 526 ; tragic elements in his
life, 527, 528; survival of his
memory and his writings, 528 et
seq. ; influence of his writings, 530 ;
his apostolic fervour, 533 ; his
prophetic instinct, 534 ; his pro-
jected volume " Justice," 535 ; his
libretto for " L'Enfant Roi," 536;
his measure of success, 536 ; esti-
mate of his career, 538 ; declara-
tion of his1 birth, 541 ; of his death,
542 ; English translations of his
works, 542 et seq.

WHITINGS of EMILB ZOLA classified :

I. Les Rougon-Macquart, Histoire
natttrelle d'une Famille sous le
second Empire

The series generally: 30, 108 et
seq., 114, 136 et seq., 154, 167, 168,
207, 305, 320, 322, 323, 344, 348
349, 350, 364 et seq., 532

The volumes are placed below
in the order in which they should
"be read:

1. " La Fortune des Rougon," 34,
45, 115, 124, 125, 132, 133 136
286, 350, 351, 382

2. " Son Excellence Eugene Rou-
gon," 151 et seq., 156, 174, 286,
351, 376, 382

3. "La Curee," 125, 130, 132 et
seq., 136, 286. 352, 382, 415

4. "L1 Argent/' 310, 315, 352

5. "Le Rgve," 240, 261, 300, 301,
304, 325, 352, 382

6. " La Conquete de Plassans," 144,
147, 148, 353, 382

7. " Pot-Bouille," 207, 208, 212,
268, 270, 354, 380

8. " Au Bonheur des Dames," 212,
213, 214, 215, 355, 415

9. " La Faute de I'Abbe* Mouret,"
150, 151, 286, 355, 373, 376, 382,
410

10. "Une Page d'Amour," 27, 167
et seq., 170, 356, 373, 378, 382,
384, 389

II. "Le Ventre de Paris," 141 to
145, 154, 162, 286, 357, 379, 382

12. "X,a Joie de Vlvre," 123, 155,
206, 215, 218, 286, 357, 415

13. " L'Assommoir," 154 et seq.,171,
198 et seq., 212, 252, 285, 358, 371,
372, 379, 536, 537

14. L'CEuvre," 58, 69, 92, 94, 122,
180, 224, 226, 228, 359, 379

15. "La Bete Humaine," 305, 306,
314, 325, 360

16. "Germinal," 220 et seq,, 227,
360, 379, 523, 534

17. "Nana," 45, 171, 185 et seq.,
189, 212, 252, 268, 353, 359, 360,
376, 380, 382

INDEX

559

18. "La Terre," 219, 229 et
238 et seq., 254 et seq., 261,
339, 361, 3T9, 380, 381

19. "La Debacle," 126, 311,
315 et seq., 362, 376, 379, 380

20. " Le Docteur Pascal," 261,
318, 319, 320, 363, 379, 382 et
405, 406, 415

II. Les Trots Villes

The series generally: 407,
494

1. " Lourdes," 311, 318, 327,
to 410, 532

2. " Rome," 376, 407, 408, 410,
413, 414, 416, 532

3. " Paris," 153, 375, 407, 408,
460, 489, 535

seq.,
268,

312,

311,
seq.,

408,
407
411,
429,

III. Les Quatre

The series generally : 468, 493,
497, 498

1. " Fgcondite*," 405, 406, 416, 468,
469, 477, 480, 484, 486, 489, 490,
495

2. " Travail," 406, 496 et seq., 534

3. " Ve>iteV' 416, 498 et seq., 504,
505, 524, 532

4. " Justice," 504, 535

IV. Other Novels

"La Confession de Claude," 60
et seq., 68, 70, 73, 76 et seq., 344

" Madeleine Ferat," 107, 110, 113,
302, 344

" Les Mysteres de Marseille,"
101, 102, 126, 344

"The"rese Raquin," 102 et seq.,
107, 110, 344, 381

" Le Vceu d'une Morte," 97, 98,
344

,V. Tales

" Angeline," 477

" Le Capitaine Burle " and other
stories, 213, 233, 343

" Contes & Ninon " and " Nou-
veaux Contes & Ninon," 33, 45, 49,
55, 62, 63, 68 et seq., 99, 118, 151,
155, 342, 343

" Nals Micoulin " and other
stories, 190, 221, 343

" Nantas," 190, 343

" Pour une Nuit d'Amour," 343

"Soirees de Me*dan " ("L'At-
taque du Moulin "),163, 191 et seq.

" La Vierge au Cirage," 73

VI. Plays and Libretti

" L'Assommoir," 171, 177, 224

" L'Attaque du Moulin," 191,407

"Au Bonheur des Dames,"
adapted by St. Arroman, 501

" Le Bouton de Rose," 168 et
seq., 202, 388

" Enfonce" le Pion," 36

" L'Hnfant Roi," 536

"terminal," 226, 303

"Les He*ritiers Rabourdin," 144,
148, 149

" Jacques Damour," by Hennique
from Zola's tale, 233

" La Laide," 74

VI. Plays ana Libretti — continued
"La Madeleine," 99, 107, 301,

302

" Messidor," 430

" Les Mysteres de Marseille,"
106, 107

" Nana," 201 et seq.

" L'Ouragan," 498

" Pot-Bouille," 219

" RenSe " (" La Cure*e "), 233

" Le R6ve," 304

" La Terre," by St. Arroman and
Hugot from Zola's novel, 501

" ThSrese Raquin," 141, 142, 144

" Tout pour THonneur," by
Ce"ard from "Le Capitaine Burle," 233

VII. Verse

" L'Amoureuse Come'die," 56, 69
" Genese," 57, 58, 111
Various, 43, 45, 49, 51, 55, 56,
57, 58

VIII. Critical and Political Writings,

etc.

" Nos Auteurs dramatiques," 204
" Une Campagne ; 18^0-1881,"

" Nouvelle Campagne : 1896,"
416, 417

" Documents Litte>aires," 204

" Mes Haines " (contains " Mon
Salon"), 74, 96

" Livres d'aujourd'hul et de de-
main," 83 et seq.

" Le Naturalisme au Theatre,"
204

" La Re"publique et la Litt^ra-
ture," 159, 174

" Retour de Voyage," 317

" Le Roman Experimental," 159,
174, 183, 184, 195, 203

" Les Romanciers Naturalistes,"
204

" La Verite" en Marche " (Drey-
fus case), 6, 9, 434 ; the pamphlets,
letters, and articles reproduced in
this volume, as well as others^ are
quoted or referred to on pages 432,
434, 435, 438 et seq. (J'accuse),
447, 462, 463, 480 et seq., 485,
486, 487

For references to various un-
collected newspaper articles by
Zola see Periodical Publications :
" La Cloche," " La Marseillaise,"
" La Situation," " La Tribune,"
" La Vie Parisienne," " Le Cor-
saire," " L'lllv^nement," " Le Fi-
garo," " Le Gaulois." " Le Petit
Journal," " Le Rappel," " Le Salut
Public," " Le Semaphore "

For a list of English transla-
tions of his books, see Appendix
ZOLA, Emma, Signora Fratta, 6
— Francesco, otherwise Francjois,
father of Emile,his birth and early
military service, 6 ; becomes an en-
gineer, 7 ; his horse railway in
Austria, 8; his travels; his plans
for fortifying Paris, 8, 14 et seq.,
24, 25 ; serves in the French For-
eign Legion, 8 et seq. ; his memory

560

INDEX

attacked, 9 et seq., 29, 461, 462,
488 ; established at Marseilles, 13 ;
some of his schemes there, 13, 14 ;
plans the Aix canal, 15, 25 et seq. ;
his appearance, 15 ; his marriage,
15, 16 ; his Paris home, 16 et seq.,
his death, 27 ; his grave and mem-
ory, 28, 29 ,

Zola, Franchise Bmilie, mother of
Emile, 15 et seq., 25 et seq.t 29, 32

ct seq., 46, 47, 52, 54 et seq., 69,
323, 126, 128, 154, 195, 210

Zola, Giovanni Battista, Jesuit, 2 3

Giuseppe, Abate, 3, 4

Marco, engineer, 5

Name of, 1, 2

Predosa, 2

Zolas, Bresciau and Venetian, 2 et
seq., 6

Zurlinden, General, 474

TRUTH
By £ M i L E ZOLA

Eleventh Thousand. I2mo. $1.50

Mr. WALTER LITTLEFIELD, in The Critic, says : " Force, power, per-
suasion, eloquence are there. Marc Froment is Zola himself. * Truth *
is a page from a wonderful autobiography."

The JV. T. Commercial Advertiser : fc None is so likely to live, and
even to enhance his fame as * Truth.' There is a pronounced flavor
of skilful journalism about the whole book."

The Baltimore Sun: "A strong book, a fearfully strong book; the
strongest novel that Zola has produced."

The Springfield Republican : €< Worth a close study ... a very
powerful tract on the times, and worth reading for the light it throws
on contemporary conditions in France."

The Chicago Re cord- Her aid : <e The net result is strong. His selec-
tion of title was no affectation."

The Boston Transcript; "It possesses the epic quality inherent in all
Zola's work."

The Brooklyn Eagle • **He was actuated by a lofty and sincere pur-
pose — no man ever had a higher. . . . The use made of the Dreyfus
affair is clever, and skilfully exploited. The book will be widely
read."

Miss LILIAN WHITING, in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, says : fc The most
powerful novel of modern times."

Rev. T. McGRADY, of Bellevue, Kentucky, says: tf I do not hesitate
to pronounce it the ablest work that has ever come from the pen of the
distinguished author. It is a mighty bugle call."

The Chicago Evening Post ; e€ Set forth with all his well-known vigor,
thoroughness, and passion."

The Cleveland World : <e It will command a wide reading, and ought
to make a deep impression."

New Haven Courier .* ** Sustains from start to finish the reader's excite-
ment and intense interest in a vivid dramatic situation."

The London Chronicle : "A more tremendous indictment of a nation,
and, above all, of a nation's Church, has seldom fallen from pen."

N EW LETTERS
OF THOMAS CARLYLE

Edited and Annotated by ALEXANDER CARLYLE

Illustrated. 2 vols. ' 8vo. $5. 00 net

The Brooklyn Eagle ; "Here we have Carlyle at his best — 400 let-
ters all scintillating with graphicalness and very full of that man
Carlyle."

The Atlantic Monthly: " Of the detailed chat about his plans and his
work, there is much, and none too much. Of general matter, as
purely literary, as purely the fruit of his genius as anything which he
wrote to be printed, there is a great deal."

The New York Times Saturday Review: (t We cannot but believe that
these letters will renew for many readers their old pleasure in Carlyle ;
if they should raise up for him a host of new readers it would not be
strange."

The Dial, Chicago: "The best possible life of Carlyle — best be-
cause self-told."

The New York Evening Post : "At times his heart went out in ten-
derness, and his letters to Jane and to others are filled with exquisite
love and simple sweetness such as no other letters of the language can
parallel"

NEW LETTERS & MEMORIALS of
JANE WELSH GARLYLE

Annotated by THOMAS CARLYLE and Edited
by ALEXANDER CARLYLE. With an Intro-
duction by SIR JAMES CRICHTON-BROWNE, M.D.

Illustrated. 2 vols* 8vo. $6.00 net

The New York Times Saturday Review : "Varied and entertaining,

the « New Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle ' will be

widely read and discussed."

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY says : €t A most valuable work, supplying as

it does the real (though indirect) history and personality of a character

as generally loved for her womanly graces as admired for her brilliant

gifts of mind. Accept my congratulations upon your giving to the

book world such a treasure."

The Churchman, New York : " We find ourselves at the end of the

second volume wishing for more, loth to let this entertaining, gossipy

friend go into silence."

Argonaut, San Francisco: "The letters abundantly bear out Mrs.

Carlyle' s well-established reputation as a born correspondent, — as a

born letter-writer,"

DATE DUE

DEMCO 38-297

22_ Z86sl

^ Emest ._J
the

novelist and reformer
92 Z86vl

University Libraries

Carnegie-Mellon University
PiUsburgh, Pennsylvania

130059

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